I Dream of Evangelion
by Traitor of All Traitors
Summary: Before he receives the letter that instructs him to go to Tokyo-3 to meet his father, young Shinji wished for someone to care about him and be kind to him. On that day, the wish was granted…and he encountered her. When she came with him, she brought a dark secret with her, one that was able to be either a blessing…or a curse, and her curse became her advantage.
1. Prologue

Creation began on 10-28-12

Creation ended on 03-11-15

Neon Genesis Evangelion

I Dream of Evangelion

A/N: After watching an old sitcom, I realized that nobody had done something like this before. First come, first serve. Let's do this, yo!

It wasn't every day that the fourteen-year-old Shinji found himself with time to go to the beach. It was mostly because his aunt and uncle told him to in order to get him out of the house to spend time with their son, and less of the fact that his grades were so-so. But the letter he received from his father, informing him, or rather, telling him, to come to this Tokyo-3 city, which he could really care less for because he wasn't as interested in the future as he demonstrated a questionable interest in the past. Myths and legends, in particular. This, second only to his interest in culinary arts, was looked down upon by his guardians, who stressed him to look into the future instead of the past, since he was going to the city of tomorrow to meet with his father. Of course, he could tell, immediately, that they were desperate to get rid of him, the son of Yui Ikari, the girl with a passion for science.

But he didn't care. Nobody ever did. For the last eleven years, he'd been looked down upon by, virtually, everyone, simply because of who his parents were and for his lack of interest in real things besides cooking. He even added this in a report he had done, and the teacher gave him a "B" for not taking the report serious. Sometimes, just sometimes, he wished that there was somebody that cared about him for him, that wouldn't chastise him, wouldn't exploit him, hurt him or even abandon him like his father had when his mother died when he was three. He just wished that somebody would be there for him when he needed them to be, and would give him kind words and encouragement.

"Why, after so many years, would he want to see me?" He questioned, and then tripped over something and fell to the sand. "Aaah! Aah…why me?"

He got back up, and saw what he had tripped over. It was some sort of rusted bottle that looked like it belonged to a museum or an art collection. Sand was caked over much of it, and it possessed a top that reminded him of artistic caps for cosmetic products. It made him think of mythology, but he couldn't recall what part of mythology it was. However, he couldn't let go of the curiosity of what might be inside the bottle.

_I wonder what could be inside it,_ he thought, shaking the bottle, but it felt empty, yet it had a cap on it, meaning that there had to be something inside. _Maybe if I remove the cap._

He pulled on the cap, twisting it until it suddenly came off the bottle. Smoke, black and blue smoke, came out of the bottle, causing him to drop it back onto the sand, backing away.

"When the bottle is opened by kind hands lost in the darkness," he heard a voice speak out, "let them know desires that can be fulfilled."

The smoke that escaped the bottle gathered in front of him and condensed on the sand, forming a shape that seemed humanoid. He expected the shape to be some sort of monster unlike any the world had ever seen, but as the smoke soon dissipated, he saw that he was mistaken. It was a rather-attractive woman, probably in her late-teens or early-twenties, dressed in flowing, black and blue clothing that reminded him of some of the type of clothing people wore in ancient times that had even survived to modern-day times, with long, flowing, amber-colored hair and purple eyes. She looked like she was of a non-Asian ethnicity that wore an outfit befitting those belonging to a harem of some sort. She was even kneeling in front of Shinji, her arms positioned in a prayer pose with a smile of untold gratitude.

Shinji, who thought he was dreaming, never expected to see a woman come out of a bottle before, and was surprised to see the woman approach him and kiss his left cheek!

"Thank you, Wagakimi (My Lord)," she told him. "You have set me free from my imprisonment."

"Uh, you're welcome," he responded, but then realized that she was speaking his native language…and she didn't look native to his country. "Wait a minute! You can speak Japanese?"

She knelt in front of him again and uttered, "Yes, My Lord. It has been decreed that whosoever releases me, I shall know their way of speech and inherit their tongue of language. This is Japan?"

"Yes. Who are you?"

Rising to her full height, which was a foot taller than Shinji himself, she expressed, "I am Pema, and I'm your genie."

Hearing that made Shinji gasp in awe; it wasn't every day that you hear someone tell you that they're your genie, which existed only in mythology.

"But…but genies don't exist," he responded.

"Nobody has seen vampires or werewolves, and yet they're real as I am, My Lord." Pema explained. "Uh, what year is it, by the way?"

"It is the year Twenty-Fifteen. Two-Thousand-Fifteen."

"Twenty-Fifteen, Anno Domini?"

"Yes?"

"I've…I've been sealed in my bottle for over five-thousand years, just as I was informed I would be."

_Five-thousand years?_ Shinji thought, as the lore of genies was that they were thousands of years old, yet they often appeared humanoid or unattractive to the eyes of the beholder, but this one, Pema, was rather very beautiful…if he could ever admit it to her.

Pema then went and picked up the bottle she had been imprisoned in…and it began to look like time was reversing itself upon it. If Shinji thought it was ancient before, he now had to see it again because it now looked like a gift from the heavens themselves, glittery and bluish-purple, with some rubies and diamonds on the base of its design and some pearls on the cap and top.

"Pema?" He asked, wondering if she was going to leave him just because she found out she had been released after being kept in the darkness for over fifty centuries.

But Pema turned to face him…and handed him the bottle, speaking a small series of words that didn't make sense to him; they must've been of an ancient dialect that didn't exist any longer.

"Keep this with you," she told him. "As long as you have it, I will be by your side forever, My Lord."

He slowly nodded that he would keep the bottle. Then, even though he couldn't make heads or tails out of what had happened next, he was standing in front of his aunt and uncle's home with Pema.

"Huh?" He realized. "How'd we get here when I last remembered we were on the beach?"

"Oh, I just blinked us here," said Pema, who then blinked again, changing her outfit to resemble a blue, schoolgirl swimsuit of sorts with a purple skort covering the bottom half. "Is this okay, My Lord? It does seem like we're in the summer time."

Due to the fact that she didn't know that Japan had lost the other three seasons, Shinji was going to have to teach her in the ways of the world as far as he knew, but told her the outfit was okay. He took out his key and opened the door, seeing his aunt walking down the stairs, looking at him like he'd done something wrong, and seeing the beautiful bottle in his hands.

"Please, tell me you didn't steal that," she told him, which made Pema confused at her choice of words to greet her nephew. "And who is the woman beside you?"

"This is…a friend I made today," Shinji tried to lie; he couldn't just say that Pema was his genie to people that didn't believe in them or would probably desire her for unfair reasons. "This is Pema. I met her at the beach."

"He's such a gentleman," Pema added in, speaking kindly. "He helped me to cross the street and even sent away a man that was making a move on me. I was so impressed that I gave him my family artifact as a gift. It has brought me good luck in my years growing up that I believe it will grant him good luck, as well."

"Oh. Well, thank you, miss." Shinji's aunt expressed.

-x-

As he finished packing up for his trip to Tokyo-3, Shinji once more looked at Pema's bottle, wondering what she could do as a genie…and what she couldn't do. He accepted that she could change her outfit and was capable of transporting herself and him to his aunt and uncle's home, but what else could she do that was supernatural? He looked at his letter from his father and regretted ever opening it, thinking his father would say something kind to him, only to find it was anything but kind, along with the photo of this woman that was to pick him up when he arrived to the city.

"Shinji?" He heard Pema say his name, and he yelped in surprise.

"Aaahh!" He gasped, seeing her in front of him, dressed as she was when he freed her from her bottle. "Oh. Pema. Sorry. How are you?"

"I'm fine. You seem unhappy about something."

Shinji then noticed that Pema was sitting cross-legged, but was also floating four feet above the floor.

"It's my father," he confessed. "I haven't seen him in years, and now he wants me to come to this city, Tokyo-3, to see him. The problem is that we don't even know each other, don't talk to each other, and he's never said a kind thing to me after my mother died when I was three years old when he abandoned me. The last time I saw him was three years ago, but even that was a lousy time."

"Is he…truly awful from your point of view?" She asked him, wanting to know; for her, his opinion mattered above all others.

"Yes," he answered her, "he is awful."

"I want to know more about you, My Lord," she then said to him. "I wish to know whatever there is to know about you and your life, however large, however small."

"Why?"

"Because…I believe that we are so much alike. That I've probably been set free after so long just to meet you, and because you made a recent wish today…except I don't know what that wish was."

That's when Shinji remembered that he had made a wish while at the beach before he found Pema's bottle: He had wished that someone would care about him for him and wouldn't abandon him, that would want him around and give him kind words and encouragement.

"Well," he gave in, picking up her bottle again, "can we start with a little formality? You can just call me Shinji. Being called a lord is too uncomfortable to me."

"Of course, My Lord," she responded, but then corrected herself. "I mean, Shinji."

"Well…it all started when I was a little over three years old."

-x-

_That was really the first time anybody ever truly listened to me last night, _thought Shinji, recalling how he had told Pema about his childhood up to now, and she had listened without question, even crying at how cruel his father, aunt and uncle had been to him and holding him in a comforting embrace. _And it was the first time anybody ever really wanted to know everything about me._

The last stop his train made was to this city, Tokyo-2, which seemed desolate, empty and without a single person walking the streets. He walked around for a while, but he saw nobody present, which made him wonder if the city was abandoned. Stopping, he opened his backpack and pulled out Pema's bottle, which he had almost gotten into a conflict over with his cousin, who wanted it only for himself, despite being informed that Pema gave it to Shinji and he alone was entitled to it.

"Pema?" He called out after opening the bottle. "I think it's safe for you to come out now."

Smoke came out of the bottle and formed into his genie; it would be a while before he would get used to her coming out of her bottle like this. She looked around the streets and then him, "Shinji, this place seems completely empty."

"That's what I believed, as well," he agreed. "The phones don't work, either. I tried to call the number my father left on the note he sent me, but I got nothing."

"I still don't see why you bother to even see him. Though, it's not like you can go back to your aunt and uncle again, either."

"They seemed happy to be rid of me, Pema. I don't blame them, of course. They never even told me to call them or write them, as if I wasn't coming back. And…auntie once said…that she wouldn't miss me at all if I was gone."

Pema held him by his shoulders and hugged him.

"I won't ever leave you," she promised him, feeling his arms wrap around her back. "Ever."

"Thank you," he told her, happy that she wouldn't leave him.

STOMP! Something shook the ground and them, causing them to react with some panic.

"What was that?" Pema asked.

STOMP! The something came again, louder and harder.

"I don't know," he responded.

Then, from around a large hillside, a giant monster appeared, attacking VTOL fighter planes. It reminded Shinji of the Gill-man, but bigger, with bones jutting out of his shoulders and chest, and possessing a red orb of sorts. It even seemed to feature bird-like qualities unlike any other creature he read about in mythology.

"Uh, Pema, couldn't you make this monster go away?" He asked his genie; they had gone through a lesson last night about what Pema could do as a genie…and what she couldn't do as a genie, as there were limitations set upon her before her imprisonment.

"I could try," she expressed, just as frightened of the creature as he was. "But where do you want me to send it?"

Shinji thought for a moment and an idea came to mind.

"Try Nevada," he suggested; last night, he'd also given her a crash course on the geography of the planet after the damage caused by Second Impact, which had reduced most of the state of Nevada into a wasteland with very few people.

"Okay," she agreed with him, but before she could cross her arms and work her magic, a blue car sped in front of them and a woman with purple hair showed up.

"Get in!" She ordered them, and Shinji grabbed Pema and hopped into the car; Pema would have to wait a while until she could do whatever she could.

They drove away from the battlefield as the creature continued to fight the planes that were shooting at it, but the creature was completely unaffected by the weaponry used against it; it like a wall of sorts was between it and the rest of the world. But once they were far away from the scene of great violence, Misato Katsuragi, the purple-haired woman driving the car, noticed that she had picked up one passenger too many.

"Okay, who's the chick in the harem outfit?" She asked Shinji.

"Huh?!" He realized that she was referring to his genie, who hadn't changed her outfit to fit in more with the ordinary crowd. "Oh, she's…my friend."

"I thought your father sent you a letter that said to come alone," Misato stated.

"Un-uh, his letter just told me to come," he corrected her. "It didn't say I couldn't bring a friend with me, and Pema and I have a good relationship."

Misato looked at Pema, the girl looked taller than Shinji, in addition to looking near his age group, but her appearance was clearly not of Japanese descent; there weren't many people of other races around Japan that stuck out.

"Pema?" She questioned, trying to recall where she once heard that name before.

"It's Tibetan for 'lotus'," the genie explained her name. "But I am not of Tibetan descent."

"She speaks our language?"

"She's very special," Shinji told Misato, but he didn't want her to know just how special yet.

-x-

The attempt to destroy the Angel with an N² Mine had failed utterly, and all of Tokyo-2 had been sacrificed to try and succeed. All that the mine do to the monster was singe its flesh and force it to grow a new face to replace the one that had been pushed to the side. When the result of the explosive assault on came back, command of the operation to destroy the Angel was transferred over from the JSSDF to the UN-controlled agency NERV.

"You'd better not screw this up, Ikari," said one of the generals to a man in his late-forties who seemed to possess a complete lack of respect toward his superiors.

"Relax," responded the man that was Gendo Ikari to the general. "This is what NERV exists for."

-x-

"…This place…is awful," said Pema to Shinji, as they followed Misato into the base of NERV HQ after being shown the Geo-Front.

"Yeah, Pema," he agreed with her, keeping a tight grip on his backpack, worried over the safety of Pema's bottle; he could've looked through the pamphlet Misato had given him earlier, but he decided against it, as it didn't really tell him anything he suspected he really needed to know.

They were about to pass through another door when a woman, probably in her early-thirties, dressed in a blue blouse, black skirt and stockings, a white lab coat and with faux-blond hair, appeared in front of them, bearing an expression of irritation.

"Captain Katsuragi," she uttered, and Misato seemed embarrassed by her presence, "why must you try our patience by getting lost around here? Do you realize we're short on time and personnel?"

"Sorry, Ritsuko," Misato apologized to the woman, "I still haven't got the layout of this place memorized yet."

Ritsuko sighed and then took notice of the fourteen-year-old boy and the tall girl beside him.

"Is he the boy?" She asked Misato.

"Uh, yeah," she responded. "According to the Marduk Institute, he's the 'Third Child'."

"And the girl?"

"She's his friend."

"I thought he was instructed in his letter to come alone."

"My letter only said for me to come here," Shinji defended his genie. "It didn't say I couldn't bring a friend. Beyond that, she's important to me."

"She don't look Japanese," Ritsuko stated, taking in Pema's features.

"If people are going to question my appearance, they're going to get dull explanations," Pema responded to the faux-blond, surprising her with her ability to speak their native tongue so fluently. "Why question or judge the way the gods made me? A person should be judged or questioned by their choices, profession and emotions, not their ethnic background and appearance."

Shinji nodded in agreement to what Pema said, though he had to disagree with her a little when it came to the appearance of his father, who was dark and cold.

Ritsuko couldn't find the words to defend herself against the genie's choice of responses, and instead led the trio to where they were supposed to be.

"Maybe I should've changed my outfit, Shinji," Pema suggested.

"No, it's okay. Besides, you look nice in that outfit." Shinji told her.

"Thank you."

-x-

"…Fuyutsuki, handle things here," said Gendo to an older man in a brownish-red suit as he left.

"His first reunion with his son in three years," the elder, Fuyutsuki, uttered, wondering how the boy had turned out.

-x-

"Does it really need to be dark in here?" Shinji asked.

"I can see just fine, Shinji," responded Pema, who really could see in the darkness. "There's a giant, horned demon up in front of us."

"What?!" He asked again, as the lights suddenly came up, revealing the creature that Pema had claimed to seen in the dark. "Aaahh!"

He backed away and held onto Pema's left hand.

"What is this thing?" He asked, demanding an answer.

Ritsuko and Misato were confused at how the girl could identify the behemoth in the darkness before the lights came on, but Ritsuko decided to answer the Third Child's question of what it was.

"It's the last card the human race has to play in the war against the Angels," she stated. "The synthetic lifeform code-named Evangelion Unit-01. Built here in secret."

"You made a monster in the image of the Baron of Darkness?" Pema asked her. "The very worst of the Four Barons of Hell because it is, essentially, the very Devil itself."

"Huh?" Misato was confused; she had never heard of any Barons of Hell.

"Is this…that man's work?" Shinji asked.

"Correct," they all heard a voice from behind the purple giant, seeing a man in black with orange-tinted glasses. "It's been a while, Shinji."

Hating the tone of his father's voice, Shinji responded, "Not long enough."

Gendo then noticed the girl that looked like she belonged to some harem of a tyrant or lord, wondered what she was doing here.

"You were instructed to come alone," he told Shinji, pointing to Pema, "so why is she here?"

Shinji was getting irritated with the same question being asked to him; if it wasn't the two women he just met today asking him why his genie was with him, it was his own father, of whom he was sure he wouldn't get along with, asking him.

"What is with you people?" He questioned. "Your letter said only to come to this city. Only to come. It didn't say to come alone or bring a friend. I chose to bring a new friend I met just yesterday. What's wrong with that?"

"Yeah, what's wrong with that?" Pema added, seeing the man and seeing the (extremely) minute resemblance that he had to her lord and master, but his tone of voice and emotional aura were all dark and twisted, like he had rotted away over time, both inside and out. "I've seen your letter to him, and nowhere is it written that he couldn't bring someone with him as company or as a companion. He's already been, pretty much, abandoned by the relatives you left him with that say that he is like you and your wife, which I don't see any comparison to at all. They didn't even ask him to write or call when he showed up here. I say it's all your fault because of your cruelty, your heartlessness."

Gendo hadn't expected some young girl that, even if he wouldn't admit it, looked like they had the beauty of a goddess, to speak to him like this. And his plan in having his son come alone (along with insuring he had no place to go back to) was to force him to do his bidding. But with this girl here with him, that would prove difficult…unless he got rid of her…right now.

"I'm afraid your…new friend…must be arrested for infiltrating NERV property," he told Shinji.

"If she's infiltrating, then I'm infiltrating, too," Shinji responded. "Now, why did you summon me here, old man?"

Before Gendo could even think of responding, the whole building started to shake a little; the Angel was right above their heads. And just then, several men in black suits showed up on opposite sides of the cage-like facility of Unit-01, raising their guns at the two children, more specifically at Pema.

"They certainly don't have proper ways to treat a lady," she told Shinji.

"No, Pema, they don't," he agreed with her.

"We're moving out," they heard Gendo say just then.

"What?" Misato gasped. "But Unit-00 is still out of action. Hold on, you mean…you're intending to use Unit-01 against the Angel?"

"There's no other choice," answered Ritsuko to her.

"But Rei can't do it," Misato expressed. "We don't have a pilot capable of handling this."

"We just received one," Ritsuko stated calmly.

With Pema's presence near him, Shinji seemed capable of coming to realizations faster than he used to when he was younger. The only reason his father sent a letter telling him to come here…was to simply serve him in a war he knew absolutely nothing about…against an enemy he knew nothing about.

"You people are crazy," he told them. "Let me see if I got this right: You send for me, after years of absence, tell me to come to a city I've never been to, to a place I know nothing about, just to fight a monster that I know nothing about? Are you demented?! Seriously, are you demented?!"

_They must be demented,_ thought Pema, looking at the people surrounding the cage, looking at her master. _This is no different from something I almost had to do back in my past…against my will._

"It took Rei seven months to synchronize with her Eva," Misato tried to reason with Ritsuko and Gendo. "A boy that just arrived wouldn't stand a chance against an Angel. He just got here."

"He just needs to sit in the seat," Gendo stated calmly. "We don't expect anything more than that."

"And our priority is to either halt and repel the Angel," added Ritsuko. "In order to do that, it's imperative that we have someone, anyone, really, that can synchronize to some extent with the Eva. Or do you have any suggestions in mind, Captain Katsuragi?"

Pema, who had listened to every word the faux-blond woman had said, decided to speak up with, "If that's what you say, then why didn't you get someone better-suited to handle your problem? Why don't any of you do it? Why Shinji, when he doesn't even know about anything that's going on here? It's like you (she pointed toward Gendo) deliberately, purposely, had him come here to fight in a battle he knew nothing about…and may not walk away from unscathed."

"Yeah, that's right," went Shinji, agreeing with Pema on what was stated. "Why, of all people, me?"

"Because there's no one else that can do it," Gendo answered.

But Pema, due to her unique circumstances, could tell a half-truth from a lie or a given truth whenever she heard one.

"You're only giving less than half of a truth," she told Gendo. "First, you say that this other person, this Rei girl, who can't do it on account of something we don't know about, and now you say that there's no one else that can do this. You're either being less than truthful…or you're being very deceptive and trying to cover up your problems instead of dealing with them precisely and carefully. Which one is it? Is there somebody else more qualified than Shinji…or isn't there?"

As the place shook again, the genie felt an aura that seemed similar to Gendo…and it was coming from…the Eva in front of her.

"We should leave, Pema," said Shinji to her. "If the jerk can't be honest…and admit that he's in the wrong, then that means he's been in the wrong for years and won't admit it."

Things were not going according to Gendo's plan. He needed Unit-01 to defeat the Angel…and he needed his son to pilot the Eva to do so.

"Fuyutsuki, wake Rei," he ordered the elder man on the comm.

"Can we use her?" He asked back.

"She's not dead yet. Bring her here."

Before Shinji and Pema could walk away, regardless of the men in black suits still aiming their guns at the girl, a gurney with another girl, about Shinji's age, was brought in. She was pale, had bluish-white hair, several bandages covering her, and wore a diving suit-like outfit. Her eye that wasn't covered in bandages was as red as blood, which reminded Pema of most of the darker parts of her childhood.

"Rei, our spare is unusable," Gendo told her. "You must pilot again."

"Yes, sir," she responded, though Pema heard something none of the others could hear; it was the absolute nothingness within her tone, like she didn't care about anything.

As the girl started to get up, pained by the effort it took, the place shook again, and pieces of the ceiling fell to the floor.

Pema looked up and saw some more pieces of metal fall from the ceiling and heading toward Shinji. She shoved him aside and allowed herself to become the target of the debris.

Crash! The debris fell on her and she fell to the floor.

"Pema!" Shinji gasped, getting up and running over to her. "Pema.

He grabbed the debris and lifted it off her.

"It's okay," she assured him as she got up, revealing not so much as a bruise or injury. "I'm fine."

"Aaahh," they heard the other girl, Rei, who was being helped up by the medical people present.

"Look at her," Pema expressed, pitying the girl. "She can't even stand."

-x-

As the Angel stepped into the heart of the city, something came out of the ground. It reminded the would-be invader of the almighty father of the Angels, but its appearance reeked of the almighty mother of the Lilin, and he despised both.

Then, the abomination took a step forward…only to fall down.

Sachiel, the Angel of Fish, unimpressed by the would-be might of this construct, approached it with the aim to destroy it so that it would not hinder him any longer than he had been hindered already.

-x-

Pema excused herself from the people on the command bridge to find the restroom, unwilling to watch Shinji get hurt. But once she found a restroom and locked herself inside a stall, she blinked herself out of the Geo-Front and onto a building nearby the Eva she viewed with some disdain for being modeled after the Baron of Darkness, as per her thought of being close to Shinji. She saw the Eva being picked up and its right arm grabbed by the creature the NERV agency dubbed an Angel.

_He shouldn't even be in that demon,_ she thought, concerned for her master. _He could die._

When she saw the Eva's arm snap, she knew that the line between safety and sacrifice had been crossed where it should've been drawn.

"_When you return to the world that will have undergone immense change, you will also be forever changed,"_ the man that entrapped in the bottle had told her before she was buried in the darkness. _"You shall be bound to a fallen soul, cursed to do as commanded by a higher authority, for as long as you are damned. You, Pema, will be the Servant Beast of the Djinn, and bound to its faults."_

_No matter what is required of me,_ she thought, feeling different inside her body,_ I will do what I can to keep Shinji safe from harm._

When the Angel caused the Eva to undergo a head injury, Pema had disappeared from off the roof.

-x-

"Abort operation!" Misato ordered, fearing for Shinji's safety. "We have to rescue the pilot! Eject the Entry Plug!"

"We can't!" One of the female technicians declared. "We've lost all contact with the Eva!"

-x-

Shinji had lost consciousness within the Eva, feeling like someone had taken a hammer and used it on his head.

The Angel approached the fallen Eva, prepared to eliminate the hindrance, but then noticed something that wasn't there before.

It was some sort of humanoid that had an unusual stench that was more potent than the one the Eva gave off, with an elongated and muscular physique that its tattered clothing couldn't hide. There were whiskers on its greenish-blue face, tiny fangs and strands of black and white fur going down its back to its tail. Its eyes were both mesmerizing and scary; the right one was black while the left was white, as if symbolizing light and darkness, day and night. On its wrists were gold and silver shackles, indicating that it had been in some form of captivity for a time.

"Grr!" It snarled at the Angel, and placed its right claw on the Eva, triggering a large burst of fire to emanate around it.

Sachiel backed away as the Eva seemed to rise up from the damaged building and become covered in ancient-looking armor that was reinforced around the chest, the arms and legs.

"Grr! Hungry!" The Eva spoke up, its voice distorted and inhuman.

To be continued…

A/N: How's this for a first chapter? Cliffhanger! Until the next chapter! Peace!


	2. No Explanation

Creation began on 03-14-15

Creation ended on 03-20-15

Neon Genesis Evangelion

I Dream of Evangelion: No Explanation

A/N: After five reviews from readers, here comes the second chapter.

GASP! Shinji awoke to a sparse, white room…and a sleeping Pema sitting in a chair beside the bed he was in.

It was daytime, or at least a perfect illusion of it due to the fact that he could see that there were no clouds or blue sky outside the window. All there was…was light, meaning that they had to be in the Geo-Front.

_Was it all a dream? _He wondered, laying back down. "Another unbearable ceiling."

-x-

All that remained of the Third Angel were just its arms and legs and half of the ossified material that made up its bone-like face that was generated after it was damaged. The rest had been, lack of a better term, devoured by Unit-01 when it reactivated and generated armor that seemed to be the result of some sort of contamination by the creature that appeared last night. And then, when the battle was over, the creature, along with the armor, disappeared, leaving the damaged Evangelion the way it had been prior to its arrival.

The only good that came of this was that the city was in one piece.

"Say, I heard that Shinji woke up," Ritsuko told Misato as they collected and evaluated the Third Angel's remains.

"That's a relief," the purple-haired woman expressed. "What happened, anyway?"

"He suffered the equivalent of blunt force trauma to his cranial cavity," the faux-blond explained. "The Angel hit the Eva so hard that his brain couldn't take the strain."

"And he just needed to sit in the Eva? He had no training, no clue, and no chance in Hell against the Angel! It was insane to even have him do it!"

"We had no choice."

"Tell that to the girl that came with him."

-x-

"…What happened?" Shinji asked Pema when she woke up.

"You got hurt inside their abomination," she explained. "Then…it got up and defeated the monster on its own."

"So…what now?"

"I don't know. Nobody's saying anything."

"You stayed with me the entire time?"

"Has anyone ever stayed around and waited for you to recover?"

"No one."

Pema then took hold of Shinji's right hand, comforting him.

"If you were asleep for a year, I would wait for you to wake up," she assured him.

"Thank you, Pema."

Grumble! They both heard the sound of Shinji's stomach growling; the boy hadn't eaten since he woke up from his horrid experience.

"I should go find you something to eat," she told him, and then blinked her eyes.

A second later, in her hands was a small tray with a bowl of rice porridge with eggs and miso soup.

"I had almost forgotten that you could do stuff like this," Shinji chuckled, accepting the bowel of porridge. "Have you eaten yet?"

"I have not," she responded.

"Please, have some. I don't think I could finish this myself."

"Thank you."

-x-

"…We've checked and rechecked the Eva over a dozen times, Commander Ikari," Ritsuko informed Gendo. "There's no change in its internal structure, the core or anything else. No S² Engine was even detected. Whatever happened to the Angel, Unit-01 wasn't changed by the end result."

As they were in his office, Gendo was concerned that Unit-01 could be harmed by the Angels in an extreme way before their grand design could be achieved. And then, there was that thing that appeared in the battle, took control of the Eva and fought the Angel, forcing NERV to watch with no control over their creation. There hadn't been any sight of it after the Angel had been defeated and devoured.

"What of the Third Child?" He asked. "Does he know anything about this creature that appeared?"

"He was completely unconscious after the Eva suffered cranial damage," Ritsuko revealed. "He had no awareness of what occurred."

"How can we be sure…unless we question him ourselves?" Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki questioned.

-x-

"Pema, you're still here?" Misato asked the young lady, who was standing outside of the restroom assigned to men.

"Yes, I am," she answered her. "Is that a problem?"

"Well, I… I mean, I would've suspected you to be gone."

"And leave Shinji alone? That would be something I would come to regret. He doesn't have anyone. He didn't really have anyone until he met me."

Suddenly, the sound of a toilet being flushed was heard, and then the sound of running water before the door to the bathroom opened up…and Shinji stepped out of the room.

"Oh, Ms. Katsuragi," he expressed, a little uncomfortable with her presence. "Hello."

"Hello, Shinji," she responded.

A moment later, a gurney came by, carrying Rei Ayanami, who seemed to be eying the young man and the foreign woman negatively, despite being injured still.

Shinji then noticed that Gendo was down the hall and had approached the injured girl. He then looked over at them, but then turned away.

"Pema, we should leave," Shinji told her.

"Yeah," she agreed with him.

"Oh, wait a minute!" Misato expressed. "You haven't been evaluated yet, Shinji! You could have brain damage, be suffering from PTSD, or…"

"Or suffer from headaches?" He cut her off. "I only have one headache, and he's as cold as he is cruel. If there's nothing left to say, then there's nothing left to talk about."

"You still need to be debriefed about what happened last night."

"I don't remember anything, and Pema has already explained what happened. I blacked out after being hit on my head, and that thing you call an Eva dealt with that thing you called an Angel. You could ask me the same question over and over, and I'd still be unable to answer it. I'm not even sure I'd want to know what could've happened."

He then walked away from her with Pema following behind.

But the woman turned around and looked at Gendo, who had been watching them…and gave a glare that was just as cold as Gendo's heartless stare, and then resumed her departure with Shinji.

-x-

"…So they don't want to live together?" Ritsuko asked one of the Bridge Bunnies known as Makoto Hyuga, who informed the faux-blond of the alleged living arrangements of Shinji Ikari, who seemed to pass on the opportunity to live with his father. "Are you sure about this?"

"Yeah, and worse, he doesn't seem interested in NERV or what's at stake now. I guess it's normal that they stay separated."

"And being together is now abnormal. Say, were we able to get any information on that girl that came with the boy?"

"No, we were unable to find any information on her. Then again, I don't expect NERV to have any information on her."

"Who is this girl?"

-x-

"I don't think this is even a good idea, Pema," Shinji told his genie, being informed of where he should live in the city he didn't even know about. "I mean, why should I even get back into that thing to face these monsters? They weren't being honest about anything they said back there."

As they were walking down the street, Pema looked up at the afternoon sky, and had an idea.

"Shinji, we should find our own place," she suggested to him.

"Where, Pema?" He asked.

"Anywhere you want."

"But I don't know where, Pema."

He then realized that ever since he met her and she expressed to being a genie, he hadn't asked her about what her other abilities as a genie included, including her limitations.

"Pema…is there a limit to how long you can stay with me?" He soon asked her.

"No, there isn't," she answered him. "You were the one that set me free. We are bound together as a result of our encounter. What has come together, no man, woman or divine authority may shatter."

"And there's no limit to how many wishes I could ask for? I mean, in myth, genies often grant only three to whoever unleashes them."

"But I'm not bound by mythology, Shinji, so there's no…numeral limitation to your wishes. There are, however, limitations to the types of wishes you can ask for."

"What are those limitations, Pema?"

"They're what I learned of as ethereal, what you cannot touch, such as emotions or anything that effects free will, which is considered a blessing and a curse, because to exploit free will…is to provoke possible outcomes you may not survive or endure."

"I…I don't understand."

"I can't grant wishes that affect a person's life on any level beyond the material plane, Shinji. I can't use these powers to kill for you, as murder is of an unforgivable act that is against nature, as it mutilates the soul itself. I can't make it so that people can fall in love with you, as love is sacred and must be of one's own volition. Another limitation is that, no matter what the circumstances are, no matter how much it is desired, even if it's unfair, I can't bring people back from the dead. No one can bring back the dead. It's all ethereal, what can't be grasped by one's hands."

"Then, excluding those limitations, everything else is within the realms of possibility? Like… Say that I…wanted a garden full of vegetables and fruits…or drinking water?"

"Yeah. Those would be within the realm of materiality."

"What about…snow, Pema?"

"Snow?"

"Yeah, snow. Have you ever seen snow before?"

"I believe I have not. What is snow?"

"Snow is…frozen water falling from the sky, covering everything in white powder."

"Wait, I have seen that before! Everyone used to avoid it when it fell from the sky in excess. Some of us suffered from having our skin covered by it for too long that it blackened and didn't go back to normal when the snow stopped falling, resulting in many men and women having to have their arms and legs affected by the snow removed."

She had described frostbite and amputation to Shinji, and she had seen much of it and much of what hadn't been available to commoners of the world she had been taken from. In her past, the wealthy and powerful had access to practices that could extend their lifespans and substitute their missing limbs with ones that were immune to the effects of aging. She once saw a man with an arm and leg forged from pure gold and silver, while a woman had her life saved after bearing twins by being bathed in sacred waters to regenerate her severe blood loss. These were resources that one could have unlimited access to if they were born into wealth or married into a wealthy family and committed yourself to honoring the powerful family…or what had been her own case that didn't pan out.

Shinji looked over at some hills and mountainous terrain.

"Pema, let's go to those mountains," he suggested.

"Yeah," she agreed, but then turned around and looked up at the skyscrapers for a moment.

"Pema?" He asked, looking behind her and seeing nobody there. "Is something wrong?"

She turned back to him and gave a heartfelt smile that was as sincere as she had been to him since he released her from the bottle.

"It's nothing," she told him, and took his right hand. "Let's go. Let's go to the mountains."

-x-

In Gendo's office, he, Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki, Ritsuko and Misato were engaged in a meeting concerning the Third Child and the young woman that came with him to the city.

"She's a complete nonentity," Ritsuko explained their total lack of information on the girl. "She's a stranger that has become associated with the Third Child."

"And there's no denying that he's fond of her," added Fuyutsuki to the meeting, having overheard that the gossip from several of the personnel that saw the girl. "She may be a friend of his that decided to venture with him."

"She seemed offended when I spoke to her about her still being in the Geo-Front while the Third Child was recovering," went Misato, sharing her Intel on Pema. "She said she couldn't leave him alone."

"Do we know where they currently are?" Gendo questioned.

"Section Two never reported the Third Child checking into the apartment he was assigned to," Misato answered, "so it's safe to deduce that they're outside of the city limits."

"It is imperative that he be found."

-x-

It was by a miracle (a real miracle) that there was an old temple in the mountains they went up (Shinji didn't want to risk Pema being exposed as a genie or something beyond people's understanding by using her abilities to get them across the mountain). It was only about as large as a small house, but still in good condition, if only needing a little repair work done to it to make it liveable.

"It must've been around since before Second Impact," Shinji suspected, examining the flooring of the temple. "Probably a former part of the larger temples that used to be around many decades ago."

"Spiritual places?" Pema asked.

"Yeah, Pema," he answered. "Sometimes very powerful, spiritual places."

On the left side of the temple was a tea house that looked as though it had seen better days because it had been ransacked sometime ago.

"If this placed has been abandoned by people for years with no intention to come back, then this place is a derelict," Shinji told Pema. "That pretty much means that it's up for grabs by whoever wants it. If nobody wants it, we could take it for ourselves."

"Really? We could actually claim this place?"

"Yeah."

In the center of the temple was a small fire being tended by the genie, illuminating her face and giving it an eerie-yet-welcoming glow.

Shinji sat across the fire from her and looked at her.

"I just realized something, Pema," he spoke up.

"What is it?" She asked.

"I've told you all about my past…but I don't know much about yours," he revealed. "So, please, Pema, tell me about yourself. Your past, before we met."

Pema had a moment of silence, and then said, "You'd probably be disgusted with my former background. I know that I'm disgusted with one of the things I almost did, and it wasn't even for myself. It is a difficult history to live with, much like your childhood, but with different flaws."

"You listened to my childhood, so it's only right that I listen to yours, Pema. Whatever happened back then, however large or small, I want to know."

She sighed and gave in.

"To make the long story short, I was almost married to a lord…against my will…by my own father," she revealed, and the story began soon after.

To be continued…

A/N: Sorry to leave you at another cliffhanger, but I must save the best for future chapters as time progresses. I also want to get the _Breakthrough _story that has been discontinued by Deathwish911 because that story has much potential. It's the stories that don't get finished or expanded upon that make you want them the most.


	3. A Father's Hatred

Creation began on 07-16-15

Creation ended on 07-18-15

Neon Genesis Evangelion

I Dream of Evangelion: A Father's Hatred

A/N: What Gendo thinks of Pema.

In his office, Gendo looked at the printed pictures of Shinji and the young woman that was with him. They were taken during the time the pair were within the Geo-Front. The girl seemed slightly older than the Third Child (so she was likely useless as a candidate for the Evangelion program against the Angels), and had the racial look of an outsider from somewhere else than Japan, which made her stand out more. And, despite her gaijin status, she did have an unearthly beauty to her, both in her skin texture and her dress.

_What could she possibly see in the Third Child?_ He wondered, almost resentful of the attention this girl gave the boy. _He's deprived of any reason to live for himself, he's spineless and can only do as he's told. What could she see in him?_

Then, there was what she said on the bridge in front of Unit-01, indicating that she knew at least something about the way it looked like.

_She called Unit-01 the Baron of Darkness, and that it was the worst of four barons,_ he thought, now looking up the four barons, if they even existed in some form of history, on his computer.

It took him about eight times, but he finally found something relating to four beings that were probably what the girl had expressed before.

"The Four Barons of Hell," he read on the screen, and as he read, he discovered how the four were described in mythological ways, like how the first one encountered possessed only one eye as its sole feature to its face…and how the final baron was depicted as dark as the night, with unnatural arms.

But what brought a degree of confusion to the leader of the agency was that this mythology revolving around these barons…was last dated to be from over three-thousand years ago.

"Yet, Unit-01 only has two of the features this…Baron of Darkness is supposed to have: The horn and teeth," he sighed. "Whoever this girl is, she may be a threat to NERV, and will need to be dealt with in due time."

To be continued…

A/N: So now we know how Gendo feels about Pema, and he doesn't even know her as intimately as Shinji will, eventually.


	4. Past full of Pain

Creation began on 03-21-15

Creation ended on 08-24-15

Neon Genesis Evangelion

I Dream of Evangelion: Past full of Pain

A/N: Here it is! We get to know a bit more about Pema, the young woman that came from an ancient past and ended up in the present-day world of post-Second Impact and became Shinji's genie.

If she was going to get to know him better than anyone else in the world were unlikely to, she had to come clean and reveal all that she was to him…and all that she had been and almost had been. She was not proud of what nearly occurred in her past, but she couldn't find much shame in it, either.

"Before my father told me of what was to come, I was already a month into my seventeenth year of life," she started, and she gazed into the small fire.

-x-

_Pema's Past_

The days were sunny in the vast domain, with parched soil covering the streets. It was only large patches of land infused with a wealth of produce that were the only places where green grass and such existed.

"Pema?" A woman with short, blond hair, a heavier build than the young woman in front of her, and blue eyes, called out to said woman.

"Yes, Mother?" Pema, dressed in stitched rags made to cover at least her torso and waist, leaving her arms and legs exposed to the hot air.

"Your father and I have something to tell you," the woman, her mother, informed her.

"Something to tell me?"

"It's better if you sit down and listen."

-x-

Pema stopped speaking and looked at Shinji, who was listening to her, but she decided that something needed to be resolved for the listener.

"Pema?" Shinji asked her.

She blinked her eyes…and a large plate of food appeared in front of the boy.

"A story this long requires a meal for the duration," she told him.

"Thank you," he responded.

"Well, my mother told me that she and my father had something to inform me of."

-x-

_Pema's Past_

Pema's father, if there had been advanced technology at the time to take pictures instead of needing to carve faces and identities in stone and jewels, would've been a warped reflection of Shinji's father, only the cruelty demonstrated by him wouldn't have been seen until a much later time. Another difference was his age being over seventy rather than under fifty, and his hair receded on his right side, so you could see his claw-shaped marking on the skin.

"What is it that you have to tell me?" Pema questioned her parents.

Her mother was silent, so her father spoke up.

"You know of the Grand Arcane Lord's eldest son, right?" He asked her.

"Yes," she answered him; everyone knew of the Grand Arcane Lord's children, as they were among those who never had to worry about anything in their lives, for they had anything and everything they could ever desire in life, from land to longevity. "Why?"

"It has been decided by his father that he will be married soon…and that you, as the youngest daughter of our family, will be sent to him as one of his potential suitors." He revealed.

This, however meaningful to some young women, didn't make Pema smile or anything positive. Instead, she had the look of a woman that was worried. Because this was no doubt her father's decision, she would have to marry into the most prosperous of all the wealthy families, to give her own family a chance at a better life, with better resources and everything. With men that marry into the families of prosperous women, it was a matter of their will to endure obstacles thrown at them, overcome the challenges they are faced with, and how much they want to survive to see a brighter future. But for the women, while there was a similar drive, they needed to be of three, additional qualities: Beautiful, strong of body…and obedient to their potential spouse.

-x-

"…So, your father tried to marry you off to a guy that you never knew personally?" Shinji asked her.

"Arranged marriages rarely ever prosper for anyone," Pema expressed.

"People rarely do that, anymore. Nowadays, people get to know each other for an extended time before deciding whether or not they want to get married. Even women have the right to refuse a marriage proposal given to them."

"Women have been emancipated from such obligations?"

"Everyone has the right to say 'no' if they're against something they feel is not within their best interests or goes against what they believe in."

"I wish those rights existed back then. It was either obliging to a decision…or facing a repercussion that was severe."

"How…severe would the repercussions had been back then?" Shinji asked her.

"Really, really severe. I don't know of all the penalties for going against a decision made by two families, but there was at least one man that refused to marry a woman from a prosperous family…and he was cast away." She explained.

"Cast away? You mean, like disowned, renounced by his family for refusing to marry the woman?"

"I…don't think his penalty was anything like that, but…he was made to leave in the night…and was never heard from again."

"That must be what his penalty was. He had to leave and never come back."

"But my penalty was much worse than his."

-x-

_Pema's Past_

"…But how could you not be happy to know that you're engaged to him?" Ginsenga, the eldest sister of Pema, asked her as her baby sister was being prepped for the selection process for the groom. "I mean, every girl wants to be courted by the Grand Arcane Lord's sons. I wish they'd look at me like I was desired."

Her two middle sisters, the twins Sina and Rina, were pouring several jars of warm water over her body to cleanse her of the dirt and grime, but Pema didn't have a smile on her face as she sat in the small pit.

"How can I be happy to be engaged to a man I've never even had a single conversation with?" She asked Ginsenga, just as Rina poured a jar over her head, soaking her hair. "I see him tomorrow, along with every other girl engaged to him, and it's just to decide which of us he'll want to see a second time. Every girl wants to look their best when he sees them."

Even though her sisters were of greater beauty than she was, Pema didn't understand why their father chose her over the other three. Even Ginsenga seemed envious of her because she had been chosen. As the dirt on her back was washed away, all she wanted to do was forget about everything she learned two days ago. Some people, like her at the time, believed in blissful ignorance.

It was the next day that an escort comprised of some of the other girls chosen by their families to be potentially wedded to the Grand Arcane Lord's son and two royal guards came by Pema's home and picked her up to bring her and the other girls to be examined by the father's son.

Pema, dressed in a scarlet-brown dress, noticed the twelve ladies that were older than herself and made to look their best for the guy, and she became nervous about everything that was to happen later.

"Hello," she greeted them.

"Trying to elevate your family's status by marrying the lord's son?" A woman that looked in her early-twenties asked Pema.

"My father's decision," she explained, "not mine."

"None of us have a choice," went a woman that was probably a year older than her, dressed in a stained, white dress that revealed a generous amount of cleavage to the eye. "Not even the right to say 'no' to our parents."

"I hope I don't catch the guy's eye," said another woman that looked a year older than Pema, dressed in a blue dress that was cut on the left side to expose her long and slender leg. "Then I can say I tried."

Pema hoped to be looked over in favor of the prettier girls.

Unfortunately, the deities seemed to ignore her plea to be overlooked, for when she stood alongside the other twenty-seven women chosen by their families to be engaged to the lord's eldest son, whom the child saw as the pinnacle of a man: Beautiful, muscular, and the type of guy that could court many women, time and again. He looked at her, and she…was among the eight girls chosen by him to be evaluated further by him.

-x-

"…But how could you not fall for the guy?" Shinji asked her. "You said he was handsome and from the wealthiest family around at the time."

"I just wasn't interested in anyone at the time in a romantic sense. I didn't want to get married to a man I didn't know, not even to save my family. This was my father's desire, his will. I didn't see any way out." Pema told him.

As the fire started to die out, Shinji grabbed a piece of wood and fed the flames.

"What about your mother?" He questioned. "Did she have anything to say about this?"

"Well…" Pema started, thinking back to the past.

-x-

_Pema's Past_

She was escorted back to her home by one of the royal guards, and in her hands was a silver scroll, an indication that she had been chosen among the women to be courted by the Grand Arcane Lord's son. While the day had been…somewhat pleasant for her, Pema didn't have a smile on her face.

"You're back," her mother expressed and greeted her youngest daughter as she stepped inside the stone shack. "How was it?"

Pema handed her the silver scroll and answered, "It was…nice. The lord's son looked at me and picked me as his sixth potential."

"That's great, Pema. He must've loved your beauty."

But Pema sighed and wanted to get out of the dress she had on and forget about the whole thing. She retreated to her isolated space in the shack and removed the dress, tossing it into a small basket and putting on her regular rags and stitched shirt.

"Pema," she heard her mother call out to her as she entered her space. "You want to talk about it?"

Laying on her blanket, the young girl turned over to face her mother.

"Every girl there wanted to be looked at by him," she told her. "I had hoped he wouldn't notice me and I could go. But he looked at me. He looked at me…and I wished he hadn't."

"But…that was the idea, right? To be desired?" Her mother asked.

"I think there's a difference between being desired, being loved, and actually desiring and loving someone back, Mother. A big difference."

Her mother, who looked like an elderly version of her eldest sister, Ginsenga, saw the level of unhappiness on her baby's face and realized that Pema didn't feel any real love for the lord's son, not even when she met him for the first time. The girl didn't even want to get married just yet, not even to help her family. She was only doing this…because it was her father's decision.

"You don't love the lord's son, do you?" She asked her daughter.

"Does my response even matter?" Pema responded.

"To me, because it does," she told her.

"Then I don't love him. Ginsenga and most of the women I was with at the lord's palace were in love with him, but I didn't have any feelings for him. Is it wrong not to have any feelings for someone you've never seen before?"

"It's not wrong, sweetie."

"Why did Father pick me? Why couldn't he pick Ginsenga or one of the twins? Why must it be me?"

"Because you're young, Pema. That's the only reason he chose you."

-x-

"…That's terrible," went Shinji in disgust. "He chose you for the guy because you were young. That's a really selfish excuse for trying to marry your daughter off, even if it's to ensure your family's future. Did you ever tell him you didn't want to go through with it?"

"I tried once, but it was like he only listened to every other word I was saying," Pema explained. "But when I tried to tell him again that I didn't want to marry the lord's son, he acted like I didn't care about our family's future."

Shinji sighed and expressed, "He was blackmailing you into a marriage you wanted nothing to do with. Even if you married the guy, the only real benefit you would've received was that they would've had it easier in life."

"It was like my happiness didn't matter to him. As much as I loved my family, I didn't want to marry the lord's son."

"Could I ask you to do something that's out of line, Pema?"

"What is it?"

"Could you cut your story to the point where everything changes for you?"

"You mean, get to the end?"

"Yes…and no. Just…to where you almost got married…but didn't."

Pema's face became tense with woe, and she nodded in agreement with his suggestion.

"This is…the worst part of my past, as it condemned me to the bottle," she told him.

"I'm not going anywhere," he told her, and took her hands in his.

-x-

_Pema's Past_

Even when she told her father that she didn't want to marry the man, he gave her no choice but to marry him…for the sake of their family's future. When she had gone back to him for further evaluation, the lord's son had chosen her as his bride, and the wedding ceremony was held in a week's time for everything and everyone to be prepared for it. It was to be held at night in order to cover the multitude of potential sins that could've been performed.

"…You look so beautiful in your wedding dress, Pema," her mother told her, admiring the dress her baby girl was wearing as she stood before a mirror.

Pema looked at her…and a tear escaped her right eye.

"Thank you," she said back to her.

Her mother approached her…and hugged her tightly.

"I just want you to know that no matter what happens, no matter what choice you make or whatever you say, I will always love you. And your sisters will always love you, too."

Pema's eyes widened to what she was being told…and sadly held her mother for what might've been the last time she would ever get the chance to.

"I will always love you, too, Mother," she told her.

When the ceremony began much later that night, and the lord's son became a lord himself after he said that he would take Pema as his wife, Pema, who was asked by the ceremonial priest if would take the lord as her husband, looked at the people present, seeing her mother, her sisters and her father, all looking at her, waiting on her to say what needed to be spoken, said the words that she felt were all she had the power to say.

"I…will not," she answered the priest, surprising her father and sisters among the others there. "I will never take him…or any other man here as my husband…because I do not love him. I apologize for and to everyone, but this was never about my marrying anyone. It was about saving the people I care for, against my will by my father. I can't and won't marry a man I have no love for, not even to help my family. I…will not be wed."

And with those words, her father's fury was made known for all to see.

"You traitor!" He called her.

Suddenly, the entire chamber around Pema was cast in darkness…and she was standing before the lord's son and the lord himself.

"If you don't marry my son, you will be punished severely," he warned her of her fate.

"Then I accept whatever punishment you have for me," she told him. "I will never marry your son."

Then the lord took out a decanter bottle and removed its cap, unleashing a blinding light.

-x-

"…I came face to face with a creature unlike anything you or anyone has ever seen before," she told Shinji. "My refusal to marry led to my being cursed to serve as a vessel to the ancient fiend. The lord bound it to me, cursed me to be in the bottle until someone like you found it and released me, binding me to you."

Shinji shed tears for her as he let go of her hands.

"What became of your mother and sisters?" He asked her.

"I never saw them again after that night," she revealed. "For all I know, they died during the centuries I was confined in the bottle. I was chosen to marry for my family…and I failed them."

When he fed more pieces of wood to the fire, Shinji asked her, "Would you have made the same decision if you had to do it over again?"

"What do you mean?" She asked him.

"I mean, if you had to relive that night, that moment, all over again, would you have refused to marry that guy a second time? If your mother accepted the choice you were going to make on your own, would you have chosen not to marry a man you didn't love at all?"

"I… No, Shinji," she answered. "If I had to relive that night over again, there would be no way I would marry him. I didn't love him then, and I would never love him."

"Then…the only person that failed your family…was your father."

"My father failed?"

"He could've picked your elder sister, or one of the twins to marry him, but instead of them, he chose you. Instead of a girl that could've been in love with him, he chose a girl that wasn't in love with him, and she was why he failed his family…and why he failed you, Pema."

"Father…failed me?"

"Yes."

"He failed me? He failed me. Thanks, Shinji."

Shinji then looked at the bottle that had been Pema's prison for countless centuries…and tucked it away in his bag.

"So now that we know each other's past," he said to her, "the space between us has filled up some. I hope that in the future, the space between us will be nonexistent…and nothing about each other will surprise us or force us to keep away from one another."

"I hope so, too, Shinji."

-x-

As the night hours came and went, Shinji and Pema slept beside the fire. Shinji was behind Pema, allowing her most of the flame's warmth; since she had been in darkness for such a long time, he wanted her to know the light once again. But as they slept, Pema held onto Shinji's right hand with hers, as if reminding herself that he existed in her life.

Shinji, in his dreams, found Pema to be the only person out of a legion of people that stood out in front of him. And not just because of her origins. It was because of her personality and outfit that he met her in; her wedding dress had served as her only outfit after the world she was made to leave behind became lost to the sands of time.

_I don't want anyone to hurt you, Pema, _he thought, dreaming of a dark and rainy day with him on a lonely street.

Pema was with him, and they walked down it together, under the protection of a white umbrella.

To be continued…


	5. A New Day

Creation began on 08-24-15

Creation ended on 08-28-15

Neon Genesis Evangelion

I Dream of Evangelion: A New Day

A/N: Recently, Magic Detective reviewed Insurance against the Rogues and identified a portion of the story at the end that could indicate a future story, and they're to be credited for finding out what it could lead to.

The breezy winds of the new day gave the summertime season a cool period. It was perfect for Shinji and Pema, as they were cleaning up the temple in order to give it a livelier feeling if they were going to be living in it.

It was the first time that Shinji tried to have Pema produce products that could help them in their endeavor with the temple. A broom, a Swiffer Sweeper in place of a mop, cleaning rags, even paint for the walls.

"I didn't think it was possible for me to acquire all of these," Pema told Shinji as she swept away the dust and cobwebs.

"I didn't think you could, either." He told her, submersing a rag into a bucket of cleaning solution for cleaning the window beside him. "Thank you again for trying."

"You're welcome."

When they had finished cleaning the floor and windows, they started painting the walls with a fresh coat of green and blue paint.

-x-

"…So far, it looks like the Third Child and the girl seen with him are hanging around an abandoned shrine," a Section Two agent informed Gendo of the current whereabouts of his son and his friend.

"Deal with the situation," Gendo instructed the man; he wanted the boy on a tight leash and the girl dealt with so that she wasn't a threat to his agenda that involved his ability to control his son.

-x-

"I don't think I've ever seen such a clearer sky here, Shinji," said Pema to the boy, as they were laying on the roof of the temple after they decided to take a break from painting.

"I don't think I've ever bothered to look at the sky without a care, Pema," Shinji responded. "It's so quiet out here. So peaceful. I could probably drift away from all my problems here."

Then…he sighed and asked her, "You ever think about changing out of that dress, Pema?"

"Not really. Why?" She asked back.

"Well, um… I have nothing against it, but I think you should have a variety of options besides it. It may have been your wedding dress back in the past, but it shouldn't have to be your only outfit. There are pants, blouses, other dresses, shirts with logos and pictures, made with different materials, kimonos, yukatas, stuff like that. Of course, I'm not one to talk. I haven't updated mine in a while."

"At least you have the luxury of different clothes. Let me try something."

And then, in a swirling mass of colors, Shinji saw Pema's dress change in front of him. The entire outfit became a baby-blue dress that reached down to her knees and had a red, almost transparent shawl over it. Her footwear consisted of a pair of Crocs sandals. On her left wrist was a bracelet made of quartz of various colors, and on her right wrist was a yellow scarf wrapped around it.

"How's this?" She asked him.

"It works well for a summer season," he told her.

-x-

"So instead of living in one of the NERV-owned buildings, he and this girl just moved into an abandoned temple located in the mountains?" Misato questioned the Section Two agents tasked with keeping track of the Third Child. "Have we attempted contact with them?"

"Not yet, Captain Katsuragi," one of the agents responded over the phone to her. "We're about to establish contact with the two."

-x-

"Hmm?" Pema went, hearing a series of footsteps in the grass. "Shinji?"

"Yes?" Shinji asked her, having dozed off for a while.

"We're not alone out here, anymore," she told him, pointing out to the trees away from the temple. "Men. In black suits. In the shadows of the trees."

He looked where she pointed, and saw some men in black suits stepping out of the shadows of the trees and in front of the temple.

"Are you Shinji Ikari of NERV?" One of the men asked the boy.

"Who wants to know?" He asked back.

"Commander Gendo Ikari of NERV."

"And what does he want with me?"

"Your immediate presence at NERV HQ."

"I'm afraid I'm gonna have to refuse him my presence. You see, we just got through cleaning this place, and we're taking a break."

"And I'm afraid we're going to have to insist that you come with us."

"Sir, he just told you that he doesn't want to see the man, so back off." Pema told the agent, standing up for Shinji. "We're resting."

"I couldn't have said it better myself, Pema," said Shinji.

But the men in black didn't turn away from the temple.

Shinji leaned into Pema's left ear and whispered something to her.

"Mm-hmm." She responded, and blinked her eyes.

In two seconds, the men in black disappeared from the area; Shinji had asked Pema to send them away, back to the Geo-Front. If Pema's abilities afforded by her curse couldn't be used to harm people, then there were sure to be loopholes in her abilities, such as simply removing people from someplace to another place to get rid of them.

"I don't know why you prefer the simplicity of living, Shinji, but I think your way will help me adapt to this world and time." She told him.

-x-

"…So, none of you can explain how you went from the location the Third Child and his friend were at…to being back in the Geo-Front?" Misato questioned the Section Two agents that found themselves back inside the base.

"Nothing," one of them responded. "One minute, we're there, about to apprehend him, and then…we find ourselves back here."

"And what of the girl that was with him?"

"She supported his decision to refuse the order to return to base to speak with the commander."

Misato then decided that she would try to see them herself and suggest that Shinji see his father."

-x-

"Um, Pema?" Shinji asked, finding her in a spring at least fifteen meters up the mountain from the temple, obscured by the steam. "Did you find this spring or did you make it?"

The cursed girl washed her hair back in the water and responded, "I found it…and restored it."

"You mean…this spring was here before?"

"Yeah, but the water was cold. But there was active lava flow beneath the mountain, so I just redirected some of the flow enough to revive the spring. It has been a long time since I last bathed, so I just wanted to wash the dirt off."

Shinji then allowed her the return of her privacy and returned to the temple. While he was accepting of the fact that she was from a time when myths were more than myths and had been cursed with a darkness after refusing to marry a guy that picked her to be his bride, he didn't want to be around her when she was doing things that were her personal business.

The part of the temple they had decided to repurpose as their kitchen wasn't much to work with, but it would do for now until they could straighten it out and get more food later on than what they found at the city's convenience store earlier in the day.

_"My husband and I are taking the kids and leaving this place,"_ they recalled a woman saying to another woman during checkout. _"We couldn't believe that the city had become some type of battlefield. It's just unsafe to live here when there are monsters the government didn't warn us about. It could happen again."_

As he prepared to cook over the fire, Pema continued to cleanse her body in the spring. It was a luxury she hadn't enjoyed in a long time. And back then, the water had been lukewarm or cold for the people of her family's status. It was her first time bathing in hot water; it was like her flesh was being baptized and stripped of the filth that had found its way to her.

_The Baron of Darkness,_ she thought, recalling the sight of the Eva Shinji had piloted. _I can only hope that he doesn't have to get back in it again. Something like that is a curse that comes with a severe price that can be paid in the worst of ways._

Submerging herself completely in the spring, the girl floated in the water, feeling as though she were floating in the air rather than the water.

_Whatever happens now, I want to be with Shinji for as long as I can, _she thought as she felt her back make contact with the eroded stones on the edge of the spring. _He set me free, so I must devote my life to him._

"Pema… Pema… Pema…" She heard someone call out to her.

Emerging her head from the spring, she saw Shinji sticking his head out of back door of the temple with his eyes closed.

"Yes, Shinji?" She asked him.

"Um, dinner is almost ready," he answered her.

"Okay. I'll be out in two minutes," she told him.

He then went back inside and resumed preparation for dinner…and the young girl emerged from the spring, grabbing a large, green towel that was nearby…and stepped into the temple to a small room that they repurposed as a dressing room. She blinked her eyes, and the towel covering her was replaced with a oversized, blue shirt and green shorts. Testing their comfort as she moved her arms and, in decided that they would do for now.

"…I hope you can stomach curry," Shinji expressed as she entered the room and sat by the fire.

"If it was made by you, then much effort was put into making it delicious," she said, giving him a smile to show appreciation for his efforts.

"Thanks, Pema."

-x-

Misato found the temple to be quite symbolic for Shinji and Pema to be living in, as it was ancient history and Shinji seemed to prefer a simple way of living. As she approached the front entrance to the temple, she smelled something that was wonderful to her nose.

"Uh, excuse me?" She uttered out to the temple occupants. "Hello?"

In the center of the building, by a small fire, were the two she was looking for, eating out of bowls of food.

"Miss Katsuragi," Shinji sighed in irritation. "How may we help you?"

Before she could answer the boy's question, her stomach growled, getting their attention.

"Perhaps some curry?" He offered her.

And she joined them for dinner.

"Thank you," she praised them, enjoying the curry.

"I'd ask you why you're here," Shinji said to her, "but I get the feeling that it's about that man."

Misato sighed and responded, "He wants you to continue piloting the Eva, Shinji."

"I knew it," Shinji and Pema uttered at the same time.

"I don't want to do it again, Ms. Katsuragi," he told her. "I didn't even want to do it that first time, but he was gonna make that girl do it, and she was hurt."

"That man was willing to blackmail his own son into facing an enemy he knew nothing about," added Pema to the conversation. "And Shinji didn't get so much as a 'thank you' for it. He could've been killed by that monster."

"It's a war…and this city's our fortress against the enemy." Misato explained the dire situation they were in.

"Fortress, you say? Fortresses are just temporary constructs until they're taken down by something much greater than them. You think your artificial Baron of Darkness can help you with this enemy for as long as you have it? For as long as you have enemies? I understand that you mean well, Ms. Katsuragi, but why try and make Shinji do it again? Why would his father keep the truth from him until something worse had happened? Why hide things from people that aren't kept in the loop?"

"I don't know why Commander Ikari didn't tell Shinji ahead of time. I don't know how many these enemies, these…Angels are left…or how the Eva suddenly changed and devoured the one it faced two days ago. I just know that as long as they keep attacking us, we'll need the Evas…and people able to pilot them." Misato explained.

"And will you, and I mean NERV, do whatever you have to in order to acquire these people able to pilot the Evas?" Shinji asked her.

"What do you mean by 'whatever you have to'?"

"I mean it the way I asked it. Whatever you have to in order to acquire people able to pilot them? Request their services, subpoena them, bribery or intimidation? NERV may have some influence over the people, but you're crossing several lines that deal with one's moral compass and several ethics of free will and the ability to make a choice one can live with."

"But when you're in a war, you have to sometimes abandon morality and ethics to survive."

"At the cost of staining your soul with the blood of the victims?" Pema questioned her. "Some people can go mad after realizing that they crossed lines they can't uncross. Maybe find themselves unable to sleep at night. You see your world as a place between peace and suffering, and you want to be on the side that is peace, but you want for some to suffer for the sake of peace. Even if you live in a place full of suffering, one can still find themselves able to sleep with some peace, but for those that choose to inflict suffering onto others, even for the sake of peace, they will find that their souls cannot rest. Ever. Their guilty consciences will never allow for them to know the ease of peace."

Misato never thought of the situation they were in like what Pema had spoken before. You either held onto your morals and die…or do whatever it takes to survive…and all she wanted was to survive against the Angels. But Pema brought clarity to the mind. Even if NERV were able to find people qualified to pilot the Evas, even if they survived, they would be scarred by the violence that they inflicted upon others in the process, maybe even lose sleep, suffer from nightmares or go crazy.

And they were taking serious risks with the Evas themselves. They were unstable, even with the measures taken to keep them in check, and they were known to cause instability within the pilots. And the risks to the pilots were also extreme, since Rei was injured in an earlier experiment with an Eva, just to get it operational. So Misato wasn't even sure how many times Asuka had been harmed trying to get Unit-02 to work.

"I am sorry," she told them.

"It's getting late out there," Shinji expressed. "You're welcome to spend the night if you like."

"I appreciate your hospitality, but I should get home. I have to feed Pen-Pen."

Misato got up and showed herself out the temple.

Pema then got up and followed the woman.

"Miss Katsuragi," her voice stopped Misato, and they were a considerable distance from the temple, so Shinji wouldn't hear what Pema wanted to keep between the two women for a while.

"Yes?" Misato questioned.

"I'm sure you can see that Shinji and his father don't seem to connect. And I can't speak for any of his other relatives, whom don't seem to have any concern or affection for him. But surely, you can see that I have affection for him, and I don't want see him get hurt by anyone for any reason, regardless of the outcome."

"But why do you care about him so much?" Misato wondered, suspecting that Pema was probably some woman that didn't age well and simply looked young, able to get close to younger boys. "I mean, what's your reason for being with him?"

"Before I met him, I didn't have anyone else for a long time," she explained, keeping the majority of her past from her. "My father tried to marry me off to a man I didn't love, just to make my family's life easier. I couldn't do it, so…I fled from my home. I left my mother and my sisters behind…all because my father's choice. I haven't seen any of them since…for a long time. But then, by chance or maybe an act of the deities themselves, I met Shinji on the beach. He told me what his troubles were, and I told him mine. I offered to accompany him to the city to meet his father, and I'm here for as long as he needs me…and I don't have anywhere else to go."

"So, you escaped an arranged marriage and haven't been home ever since, and you meet Shinji and decide to come to the city with him. For a moment, I almost thought you were some sort of…working girl."

For some reason, Pema suspected that the term 'working girl' meant something wrong, and responded with, "If you think I might try to do something inappropriate with Shinji, you're mistaken. I couldn't do anything wrong to him. He's a jewel that must be kept safe from theft and corruption, an innocent child in a crazy world. If a person seeks to corrupt for some reason even they don't understand, they're not in their right state of mind."

"My apologies, Pema."

-x-

Shinji didn't know what Misato and Pema had talked about outside, but simply assumed that it was about him. And he wasn't going to pry into Pema's privacy just to know for sure. Whatever the conversation, it was between the two women. It wasn't for him to know unless he actually had to or Pema chose to tell him.

As they slept that night, Shinji awoke and found Pema sitting by the fire that had lost most of its flames due to the charred wood.

"Pema?" He asked her, getting her attention. "Are you alright?"

"Hmm? Oh, I'm okay, Shinji." She answered him.

But he looked at her face and saw some degree of sadness on it.

"Please, Pema… What's wrong?"

She sighed and explained, "I had a nightmare…about my mother and sisters. They were dead and… I was alone in the darkness."

He got up and went over to her and sat beside her.

"Tell me about them some more," he offered to listen.

To be continued…

A/N: And so Pema expresses the belief that people that choose to harm others, even for the sake of peace, cannot find rest because of their guilt in hurting others. Credit in the next chapter to whoever can tell me where this belief comes from.


	6. Sentimentality

Creation began on 08-28-15

Creation ended on 11-24-15

Neon Genesis Evangelion

I Dream of Evangelion: Sentimentality

As Pema slept in after telling Shinji of her nightmare from last night, said boy was cooking breakfast over the fire. All he was hoping for today was a simple and peaceful day deprived of violence or antagonism from others.

"Mmm… Hmm…" He heard Pema under her blanket, seeing her turn over as she awoke to the smell of the eggs and hash browns.

"You hungry?" He asked her.

"Ravenously," she responded.

-x-

"…So, because of their sense of moral ethics, the Third Child won't reconsider, and is supported by Pema to stay true to his decision," Misato explained to Ritsuko what she could from last night's encounter with the pair. "Shinji couldn't risk staining his soul, his conscience, with suffering, even if it's to save others."

"I think the next time you go to see them, you should threaten the girl with imprisonment if she continues to interfere with NERV's affairs," the faux-blond told her.

"She's more moral than we aren't right now, Ritsuko. Look at us. We want peace, but we use violence against the Angels. Even if we could have peace through the Evas, our very souls will be stained because of the violence. Maybe she knows from personal experience or grew up around people that tried to live peacefully before Second Impact. Who knows for sure? But Shinji doesn't want to do it again."

As they continued to talk in Central Dogma, in his office, Gendo had a difficult time trying to find a means to deal with the girl that the Third Child was living in the abandoned temple with. So long as she was with him, his own plans for the boy were jeopardized by her mere existence, and she needed to be removed from the equation.

"Maybe he cares more for her than you can't accept, Ikari," went Fuyutsuki to him.

"So long as she's around him, we can't use Unit-01," he sighed. "She's a threat to the scenario."

"It's not like we can just talk to her without mentioning the situation. She's probably a staunch believer in what she believes. Although, Captain Katsuragi was able to converse with the pair without trouble."

That's when Gendo got an idea.

-x-

"…If you ignore the cicadas, this place is quite beautiful," said Pema to Shinji, as they were spending time in the countryside, examining the trees and grass along the pathways.

"Yeah, it is," Shinji agreed with her.

He never looked at the countryside the way Pema was looking at it, so he had to assume that she saw places like this as if she were a tourist, seeing them for the first time in her life. And, in many ways, she was seeing them for the first time in her life. She was a stranger in a strange world, alien to the major changes that took place during her time in the bottle. So she needed to see the world as it was today so that she wasn't limited to her memories of the past.

Dressed in a green dress with white shorts underneath, Pema, with the sole exception of her appearance, blended with the Japanese. Her hair tied into a ponytail and her wrists adorned with blue wristbands. Beside her, Shinji, dressed in an orange shirt and dull shorts and sandals, carried a picnic basket with them so that they could eat out on the grass.

Leaning against a tree, the girl turned to face Shinji and smiled at him.

"It's such a wonderful place, the countryside is," she told him.

"Yeah," he responded, "it is."

They sat on a pair of rocks and started to eat their lunch. Prior to leaving the shrine, Shinji had taught Pema how to make sandwiches and dumplings. She had never learned to cook before, and even if she had, the food resources of her past were minute due to her family's status.

"How's it taste?" Shinji asked her, referring to the dumplings.

"They taste pleasant," she answered, finding a vegetarian variety of dumplings, while limited due their lack of a refrigerator for the time being, still a delicious flavor in her mouth.

She could've used her powers to conjure a refrigerator, or even a dozen of them if Shinji wanted her to, but Shinji didn't want to be selfish or dependent upon her powers for their livelihood. And even if there was no such way to overtax her, Shinji didn't want to take her for granted.

As he took a bite out of a sandwich, Shinji couldn't help but smile at Pema.

"What is it, Shinji?" She questioned his smile.

"Nothing," he answered her. "It's just good that you're here with me."

Swallowing her third dumpling, she nodded in agreement with him. It was always good to have someone with you during a meal or some other activity.

-x-

With the temple vacant (and its interior showing that at least two people lived in it, not to mention that it was recently cleaned and furnished with small things to give it a lived-in feel), Misato had to look around the countryside in order to find Shinji and Pema, under orders from Commander Ikari, who had decided to want the two brought to NERV for a simple sit-down. Though she was suspecting that there would be nothing simple about any sit-down when with Commander Ikari, who seemed interested in only one thing, and that was getting Shinji back into the Eva, even if it was against his will. And there was something about Pema that, while seemingly a peace-driven young woman, had the purple-haired woman cautious of the gaijin. It was like she had a dark secret that she couldn't really share with others, but she kept it hidden from the very person she was living with.

_And again, I'm tasked with finding him,_ she thought.

Because she wasn't looking where she was driving, she didn't see the tree being used as an eating spot for the very two people she was ordered to look for. Though she did leave a small dust cloud around them.

-x-

"Ah, come on!" Shinji coughed, having dropped the last of his sandwich.

"The nerve of some people," Pema sighed, using a napkin to cover her mouth and nose in order to filter the dust in the air around her.

"Sorry, Pema. I didn't think people still drove around the countryside at such speeds."

"It's not your fault. People will always surprise you with what they do."

Grabbing what was left of their lunch in the basket, they resumed their trek around the countryside. What they needed was a walk to burn off the weight and forget about the mishap that ruined their happy period.

It was surprising that just outside of Tokyo-3 was a rural town with a large, sakura tree that was as big as a three-story building and looked as though a shrine had been built right into its trunk.

"Wow," Shinji expressed, never seeing such a tree. "I didn't think trees like this could grow to such a height."

They saw some people walk into the building in the trunk, and followed suit. Inside was large room with samurai armor and various weapons on display. The building appeared to be some sort of museum.

"Pieces of your culture, Shinji?" Pema asked.

"Yeah," he told her. "Back when honor actually meant something to those that understood it. People that grew up to become samurai were people of honor."

Pema then asked, "Respected warriors?"

"Yeah, they were like that. Respect, loyalty, nobility, the lesser people…and knew where and when to draw the line when things got difficult."

"So, due to the large changes in time and history, the people that became samurai became relics of the past…and everything they stood for became meaningless. Honor should mean something to someone, but it means nothing."

"Yeah."

They stood in front of one of the suits of ancient armor that was brandishing a katana.

"There's no sentimentality left for those that became samurai," Shinji sighed, and then walked away from the armor.

Pema sighed and followed him to a nearby bench, and sat with him.

"Maybe we both belong to a time when some of the darkest of things we've seen never were," she suggested.

He looked at her and gave a small smile.

"Maybe we're both relics from a time that no longer exists," he suggested.

"What worth is a relic that was chosen for its looks and not its sentiment?"

"I value the sentiment of the relic…just as much as I value the company of who and what makes it worth its sentimentality. Maybe I'm foolish for believing that there is a chance to live a quiet life with this relic, but she's the best thing that has ever happened to me."

Pema hugged him.

"Thank you," she praised him.

-x-

Misato was starting to doubt that she would ever find those two, no matter where or how long she looked.

_Where does a fourteen-year-old boy and an older girl go when they have nothing else to do? _She wondered, driving around the rural town outside of Tokyo-3.

Even if she did find them, there wasn't any doubt in her mind that Shinji would decline to see his father again. There was simply no love between the two, and the father appeared unwilling to try and reconcile with his estranged son. The boy's relationship with the older girl seemed to be the only thing that mattered to him, as she was the only person he truly knew in an environment populated with strangers. Even Misato, with all her good looks, was unlikely to convince Shinji to reconsider his decision.

-x-

"… I feel like everyone's staring, Shinji," said Pema to her master.

Shinji, as they were walking down the street, looked behind them and saw a few people, mostly just older men, looking at them.

"Maybe they're curious about you a little," he suggested.

"Is that another way of saying that my appearance attracts them?" She asked him.

"Yes…and no. Some of them have probably never been outside of the country, so they've never seen people of other countries or cultures."

CRASH! They heard a loud noise before Pema could respond to Shinji, and people saw the direct cause: A blue Renault A310 had crashed into a white truck, probably to avoid hitting a little dog that was limping away from the street on its three legs that weren't injured.

The driver door to the Renault opened to reveal an injured woman with purple hair.

"Urgh! Oh…" She groaned, falling to the ground with a gash on her head.

The driver of the truck got out and checked the damage to his vehicle, looking less than injured with a hurting, right arm and bloody nose.

"Pema, look," Shinji gasped, pointing to the woman. "It's Misato."

As she noticed the woman's face, the dog that had been limping away from the crash had limped over towards Pema. She picked it up and held it in her arms, comforting it to ease its pain.

-x-

Misato awoke from her drug-induced haze, finding herself in a hospital room in a bed with her left leg and right arm wrapped in bandages.

"Where am I?" She muttered.

"Tokyo-3 Memorial Hospital, Ms. Katsuragi," a male voice answered her.

"How'd did I get here?"

"A pair of teenagers said that you were in a car accident and identified you by name. The boy asked that you be brought here. He didn't stay long, though. The girl had a dog with them that was injured and wanted to get it medical treatment. Unfortunately, this city doesn't have an animal hospital."

As her vision cleared, Misato asked, "Did they leave their names? I was looking for a fourteen-year-old boy named Shinji Ikari."

The man tending to her bandaged limbs, a doctor, checked his chart and found the signature she asked for.

"Yeah, though he seemed to want to leave as soon as he was asked if he was related to Gendo Ikari. That was about two days ago."

_Two days ago? _Misato realized how long she'd been unconscious, and was already behind on her orders to find Shinji and Pema.

-x-

When the dog, a female Hokkaido, was treated for its injured leg by the veterinarian, Shinji and Pema, under Pema's new-found attachment to the dog, took her home with them.

"The vet said she would recover in about a month," said Shinji to Pema, pouring a box of dog food into a small bowl for the pup.

"She might recover in less time, Shinji," Pema suggested, checking the pup's left leg on her front. "Are you okay with us keeping her?"

"Yeah," he told her. "Besides, I think she's become attached to you."

The dog then licked Pema's cheeks, earning a small laugh from the girl.

"Tell me I'm crazy… Maybe I know… But I believe in happy endings," she heard Shinji say. "I know it's crazy… Still, even so… I believe in happy endings…"

"What is that?" She asked him.

"Hmm?" He responded to her question.

"What you were saying? What was that supposed to mean?" She clarified.

"Oh. It was just a song from years ago. Sometimes, people sing songs."

"What is the song called?"

"I Believe In Happy Endings."

"It…sounds nice."

-x-

Once she had been given the sign-out sheet, Misato left the hospital to head to where Shinji and Pema were likely to be. The temple was her only shot of finding the pair. She was already four days behind schedule.

-x-

"Arf! Arf!" The Hokkaido barked, running around happily on her legs, unhindered by her former injury.

Shinji and Pema were working on lunch while listening to music on a small radio that the girl had conjured into the shrine. So far, the girl had developed a similar taste in music that her young master had developed over time. However, she couldn't understand fully the lyrics of certain songs that seemed to embrace violence, such as music by this group called Disturbed. She did, however, find the music from a cartoon developed over three decades ago to be impressive because they spoke of good concepts, such as love and friendship.

"It's strange that these types of songs have a teaching method to them," she told Shinji.

"Yeah, it is," he agreed with her.

Suddenly, the Hokkaido stopped running around and growled at the door.

Pema looked out the window and saw the Renault.

"I don't think they ever give up," she sighed, and Shinji took notice of the emerging purple-haired woman that probably should've been in the hospital recovering still.

"Okay, let's hear her out," he sighed.

To be continued…


	7. Refusal

Creation began on 11-24-15

Creation ended on 11-29-15

Neon Genesis Evangelion

I Dream of Evangelion: Refusal

"…You pass out, bleed or something to indicate that you've not recovered since we took you to that hospital," went Shinji in front of Misato as he offered her lunch, "and we're sending you back."

"I'm hardly injured right now," she responded, defending her injuries.

"You look like you need to be in a bed somewhere recovering some more," went Pema.

"Can we get to the reason why I'm here to see you again, please?"

"Yeah, let's do that," agreed Shinji, "though I'm pretty sure we all know the reason."

"Your father wants to have a sit-down with you two."

Shinji and Pema looked at each other and then back at Misato.

"He's not going to stop until I get back into that behemoth, is he?" Shinji asked her. "No matter how many time he tries to persuade me, he won't take 'no' for an answer."

"It's because you were able to sync with the Eva," Misato explained.

"And he got hurt because of that creature," Pema expressed her contempt. "Does the guy have no love for his son? Is he that desperate to send him into a battle so extreme that he decides to use a giant modeled after the Baron of Darkness to do so?"

"This is something I would suggest you try talking to him about."

"I don't trust him around Pema, Misato," Shinji told her. "He isn't someone I would leave alone with her. Pema is…all I have right now who matters more to me than anything right now."

"Despite the fact that she's older than you?" Misato asked him.

"Even if it was the other way," he expressed; even if Pema wasn't over five-thousand years older than him, he couldn't forget the way she made him feel, wanted and accepted.

Pema picked up her cup of tea and calmly sipped; all she wanted right now was to keep her master safe from these creatures for as long as she could. And, as harsh as it seemed, she required the demon she was bound to in order to protect him.

"If we were to see him, what's to stop him from trying to blackmail me into working for him?" Shinji had asked Misato. "Or from falsely accusing Pema of something that's far from the truth, just because he doesn't like her being with me?"

Misato knew not on how to answer those questions. She knew very well that Commander Ikari didn't like Pema being around Shinji…or seem to care very much for his son, either. But if any of them were going to find out, they would have to speak with Commander Ikari.

"I think the only way to know for sure…is to speak with him," she suggested.

"He's a man obsessed," went Pema. "Based on the last time we saw him, he has shown absolutely no interest in Shinji, but seems interested in something else that's probably better left unsought after."

"What is better left unsought after?" Shinji asked her.

"Many things people were simply not meant to have."

-x-

On the security cameras, Gendo saw Captain Katsuragi return to NERV with Shinji and the girl that he was with. He frowned at the sight of the pair holding hands; she was constantly interfering with his agenda. The longer she was with the Third Child, the harder it would be to try and attempt dominance over him.

"It looks like Captain Katsuragi was able to convince them to come back for your…sit-down, Ikari," went Fuyutsuki to Gendo, looking at the pair holding hands.

"Take care of things here, Fuyutsuki," Gendo told him, and left the room.

-x-

"…Oh, welcome back, Shinji," greeted Ritsuko Akagi to the boy.

"Ma'am," Shinji responded, being short and simple.

"And your friend," the faux-blond directed towards Pema.

"I pray that this sit-down is quick," Pema told Shinji.

"Likewise," he agreed with her, and Misato led them to where Gendo was going to meet them.

The room was quite sparse and occupied with just a large table and several chairs. On the table was a jug of water and a few empty cups.

Shinji and Pema looked at one another and chose to sit by the chairs closest to the door; if this sit-down went sour, they could just walk out.

Misato sat on Pema's right side, so as to reduce whatever tension there might've been during the sit-down between the two and Commander Ikari.

The door opened and Gendo came in.

"Ugh," Pema shuddered.

"Hello again," he greeted them.

"I think we can all see where this is likely going to go, so let's get to the obvious part," said Shinji. "You still want me to pilot the Eva, don't you? That's the only reason you suggested this would-be sit-down, isn't it?"

"That's exactly the reason," Gendo expressed, sitting down in front of the two.

"You're impossible," went Pema, expressing her disgust at the man. "Someone tells you they're not interested in doing something for you, and all you want is to hear what you want to hear, to hear what you want them to say. Is that all your son is to you? Someone you expect to do what you want of him to do for you?"

"That's none of your concern, outsider," Gendo told her.

"If she's concerned for my welfare, then that makes it her concern," Shinji countered.

"Is that so?"

"I trust her more than I hate you right now."

Misato was quite shocked to hear this. She didn't anticipate Shinji having more trust in a girl that was not just older than he was, but also not of Asian descent. She was certain that he didn't know everything about her, and yet he was willing to trust her with his well-being.

"How can you trust her?" Gendo questioned his son. "There's no trace of her on any background checks we did. Nothing on fingerprints, facial recognition for a driver's license, passports, social media, credit finances, not even a simple school identification card."

"So?" Pema asked.

"So, technically, you don't exist."

"And before people were smart enough to establish society where we had such things as registration laws, birth certificates, photographs and so on, people didn't exist to everyone as a whole, either." Shinji defended Pema's nonexistent paper trails. "Why should it matter who or what she is? Unless, of course, you're the only one that has a problem with her? Do you have a problem with her?"

Gendo put his hands in front of his face, not responding to that question, and Shinji suspected that it was because it was the truth.

"Who it is I choose to spend my time with is none of your business," Shinji then told his father, "and it's nobody else's business, either. And as for the Eva… Just give it a rest. My response will always be no."

"Then you would condemn us all to extinction," Gendo accused him.

"How can I be accused of something I had no prior knowledge of to begin with? I didn't know anything about any conflict until after you sent for me…and after you told me why. If anyone deserves to be condemned, it's you for choosing to hide truths and give less than half-truths. If there are others more qualified than I am not that can pilot the Eva, then get them to do it. I want nothing to do with it…and I want nothing more to do with you."

And with that, Shinji got up and turned towards the door.

Pema got up and followed him.

"Don't you dare walk away from me!" Gendo raised his voice. "Don't you dare walk away from the only reason you exist!"

Opening the door, Shinji turned back to face him, his face contorted with anger.

"The only reason I exist? I'm a person, not a drone for you to manipulate. I have free will and the right to make my own choices, for better or for worse. If that's your answer to how little I matter to you as a person, then, just because we're related, you're not really entitled to much."

He then walked out of the room.

Pema was about to follow him out, but turned to face Gendo, who looked at her with disgust.

"He's right, and you know it," she uttered out to him. "About everything. If he means so little to you, why send for him? If the only reason you wanted him here so much was just to use as a soldier in a would-be war where the more violence you commit stains more and more of your soul to the point that you may never know the peace of sleep, why have him come here when he knows nothing about what's going on before he arrived? He'd be dead the instant you put him in front of your would-be enemy to humanity. I consider it a miracle that he was fortunate enough to survive once. It would be an act of God if he survived a second time. Would it kill you to say something nice to him? To say that he matters to you as a person? Or are you as every bit the heartless man I see you as?"

"I should have you locked in the brig, outsider," he responded.

Pema sighed and left out the room, running to catch up with Shinji.

"I heard what you said, Pema," he told her.

"It probably didn't change anything or get something of actual meaning out of him," she responded.

"Still, thanks for saying all of that. It meant a lot to me."

"You're welcome. I do apologize for his complete disinterest in you as a person."

"You didn't make him hate me, Pema. He's just an idiot. I don't even want to know how he's my father."

As they walked out the base's front door, the pair held hands.

To be continued…

A/N: I can't believe this all came to mind as I wrote it. And Gendo, can anyone say that they hate him even more in fanfiction and admire Pema's devotion to Shinji? Anyone?


	8. A Crimson View

Creation began on 11-29-15

Creation ended on 11-29-15

Neon Genesis Evangelion

I Dream of Evangelion: A Crimson View

A/N: Takes right after the previous chapter.

They stopped walking, for she was the in front of them. The girl they saw when they arrived the day the Third Angel appeared. She looked like she was getting better, but it took Shinji great effort not to cringe at her bandages.

Rei Ayanami, the First Child of NERV's Evangelion program and the only other teen Pema had met besides Shinji, not to mention a girl that she, initially, took pity on because of her injuries.

"Miss Ayanami," said Shinji to the girl.

The girl didn't respond back. She just continued to stare at the two with her red eyes. Then, she looked at Pema.

"Who is she?" She demanded of him.

"She is my friend," he answered her.

"She's not Japanese. How can you trust her?"

"That's my choice. If I had to, I would trust her with my life. Why is her background such an issue with everyone?"

"Because she's not one of us," she answered him. "She's not involved with NERV."

"I'm not, either, and never will be," Shinji told her. "We just had a very moot sit-down with a very awful man, and we really need to go before he tries something crazy that does nothing but cause further misfortune."

"Are you not Commander Ikari's son?"

"What has that have to do with anything?"

"Do you not have faith in your father's work?"

"Not a chance! There's no way I can ever have faith in a man like him! Not him, not his work, not a thing!"

Rei approached him…and raised her left hand up.

Pema intercepted her and caught her hand before she could slap Shinji in his face.

"You asked, he answered," she told the blue-haired girl. "You can't slap him just because he answered your question and spoke his mind about that man. That would be just as cruel as the man we left a sit-down with."

She then released her arm and stood between Shinji and her.

"If you have some measure of faith in him, then that's your decision. Don't try to assault a person just because they don't have faith."

When they left, Rei glared at the older girl, feeling that there was something about her that was…not human…or Angel…or anything that could be explained with logic.

To be continued…

A/N: And now it seems Rei has joined the problem. Can anyone spell the problem she and Gendo are showing against Pema?


	9. Two Hearts, Two Souls

Creation began on 11-30-15

Creation ended on 11-30-15

Neon Genesis Evangelion

I Dream of Evangelion: Two Hearts, Two Souls

It was getting late, as the sun had been set, letting the night take over on Tokyo-3, but Shinji and Pema, along with Pema's Hokkaido, were observing the city's nightlife. Or rather, what passed for a nightlife, as the girl's past had a nightlife that had been vastly different from the modern-day variety.

Despite being a city of artificiality, Tokyo-3 had little to indicate a place where people could go have some fun that was acceptable for some. And Shinji found that the city also had its share of homeless people that were sleeping on heated grates, while Pema noticed one thing that she wished wasn't as common as it was rare in her past.

There was a girl, probably no older than a ten-year-old, dressed in provocative clothing where you could see much skin, wearing makeup and fancy earrings, standing against a building wall.

Not wanting to see what was likely to occur later, she took Shinji and walked further down to the nicer parts of the city.

"I still can't believe you stopped her from trying to slap me," Shinji then spoke up, referring to earlier today.

"I can't believe she was going to slap you just for speaking your mind about that man," she responded to him.

"Thank you again."

"You're welcome."

"Arf! Arf!" The Hokkaido barked, and Pema picked her up.

"Looks like someone's tired," the girl expressed.

-x-

"…Looks like your plan to convince him to pilot the Eva again didn't bold well for you, Ikari," went Fuyutsuki to Gendo in his office. "It would appear that you have driven him away…and he has found acceptance with this woman he calls his friend."

Little did the elder know, Gendo, determined to make his son submit to him, had a contingency plan set against the foreign girl. As foreign as she was, he knew that people were frail and vulnerable to the unexpected happenings that could occur at any time. And if the Third Child were to experience a loss, he'd have no choice but to join NERV.

"…And your strategy to have Rei get close to him didn't take, either," Fuyutsuki continued. "His relationship with the older girl is greater than any sense of devotion or interest in NERV affairs."

"It will soon be irrelevant," said Gendo to him.

-x-

Risking the spoiling of their appetite for dinner, Shinji and Pema stepped out of a convenience store with a bag of potato chips.

"Say, Shinji," Pema spoke up, "I don't seem…like I don't belong, do I?"

Shinji looked at her and answered, "Not to me, you don't. I don't think there's anyone out there in the whole world that is anywhere near like you. I'm glad we met."

"Thanks," but then she felt the need to ask him something else. "Shinji, before we met, was there…anyone that you fancied?"

"What do you mean, fancied?" He asked her, confused by her question.

"I mean…was there someone out there that you…liked a lot?" She clarified.

"No," he answered her, "there wasn't anyone before we met."

As they walked through a park by a lake, under the lampposts, the cursed girl suddenly felt a tinge in her stomach…and ran over to a bush.

Shinji heard her making a hurling noise and approached her.

Pema soon stopped and turned to faced him, wiping the small trace of bile from her mouth.

"Sorry," she apologized to him; she suspected that potato chips laced with salt and vinegar simply didn't agree with her stomach.

Shinji took the bag of remaining chips…and dumped them onto the dirt, stomping them to bits. And then he hugged her tightly.

"I didn't like those chips myself, either," he told her.

"Shinji…do you like me?" She asked him.

"I do," he answered her.

"If I didn't look the way I do…would you still like me?"

Shinji was almost at a loss for words when he heard her say that, but answered truthfully.

"I don't think there's anyone out there that I could like more than you, Pema," he said to her, looking at her face, "regardless of appearances."

Then, despite the colossal gap between the two that was their respective ages, the pair continued to embrace under the light of the lamppost. Until Pema, either crossing a line or simply because Shinji lowered her head to meet his, locked lips with him.

_Who is he kissing? _She wondered to herself.

_Who am I kissing? _He wondered to himself.

A minute later, in Pema's mind, one of the songs she heard on the radio replayed in her consciousness, causing her to fantasize mildly.

"_Who is he kissing? Is it me? Or is he making love to a fantasy? Who is he kissing? Wish I knew… What is he thinking of when he looks into my eyes? Whoa! Whoa!"_

In her fantasy, the very city of the future appeared crossed with her past locale, with the people of poverty dressed in rags to go along with ordinary clothes, small buildings made of stone and wood dotting the places where the steel and glass skyscrapers stood. In this setting, she was dressed in her old rags, but Shinji was dressed in his school uniform, surrounded by a legion of other girls closer to his age than she wasn't. They were either trying to flirt with him or pull him away from her.

"_Who is he kissing? Wish I knew… Who is he kissing? Me or you? Who is he kissing when he looks into my eyes? Who?"_

Then, one girl that looked a lot like Rei Ayanami appeared and tried to pull him away from her, but she held onto him with all that she was…and wasn't, as the demon she was bound to, the very same demon she turned into when Shinji was put in danger that took control of the Eva and absorbed the Angel into itself, showed up and gripped Shinji by his shoulders.

"_Who is he kissing? Me or her? Am I being used? Tell me… Who does he prefer? Me or her?"_

Suddenly, the demon was no longer there. She had become the demon! She had become the very creature she had feared Shinji seeing her as (although she had told him of this). She released him, but then realized that the blue-haired girl had taken him into the legion of girls.

"_Does he sees some other girl when he looks my way? Does he want some other girl? Which role should I play?"_

She shoved through the legion, pushing away the countless girls that Shinji could've fancied, but had a difficult time finding him. Until she saw the mockery of the Baron of Darkness…and Shinji being dragged to it by the blue-haired girl against his will.

_Could he ever accept you as a slave to a demon? _A demonic voice asked her in her mind, and she looked at her twisted reflection in a puddle beneath her inhuman feet. _Could he ever want you over one of them?_

"_Who is he kissing? Wish I knew… Who is he kissing? Me or you? Who is he kissing when he looks into my eyes? Who?"_

Pema looked at her hands. Her inhuman hands, and decided upon just wanting to save Shinji, regardless of what she looked like at the moment. She could regret him seeing her like this at another time.

"_Who is he kissing? Who is he kissing? Who is he kissing? Who is he kissing? Who?"_

Her fantasy ended with her knocking away the blue-haired girl, getting Shinji away from the mockery of the Baron of Darkness, and him seeing her further as the beast she was cursed to serve as a vessel to as her penance for refusing to marry a lord's son.

She ended the kiss, now unsure of who initiated it to begin with, he or her, and he let go of her.

"Arf!" The Hokkaido barked, and the two resumed walking through the park to get back to the temple and out of the cold.

-x-

Gendo felt crossed now. He had a Section Two agent tailing the Third Child and the outsider, and he had received video feedback of the two engaged in a kiss that lasted over a minute or so…and the Third Child didn't seem to want to let go of her.

"Eliminate her," he ordered the agent; the sooner this girl was disposed of, the sooner he could exploit the boy.

-x-

"…I think we should try dim sum tonight, Pema," Shinji suggested as they were less that twenty feet away from the temple now.

"I thought dim sum was Chinese," she responded. "You're Japanese."

"No shame in trying new things. Plus, it's all Asian when you think of the archipelago as just a chipped-off piece of China from over a few million years ago."

"That is true. Does dim sum include those pastries called moon cakes?"

"Totally."

Suddenly, a man in a black suit jumped out of the shadows and held up a pistol at the pair.

"Hands in the air!" He demanded of them, pointing at Pema. "Hands up!"

Shinji raised his hands up, but then recognized the guy in the suit. It was one of the men that appeared before, whom Pema had sent back to the Geo-Front.

"Hey, you're one of the men from before!" He revealed, which Pema then realized was true.

With his identity compromised, the agent raised his gun at Pema…and pulled the trigger, unleashing four rounds into the girl's chest.

"No! Pema!" Shinji yelled as the girl fell to the ground.

The agent then ran off; since the order was to get rid of the girl, four shots into the chest seemed sufficient in eliminating function of the lungs, liver and heart. And since the girl was without any means of medical care, she was going to die soon.

"Pema," Shinji cried, removing his shirt to cover her injuries.

"Ow…" She groaned quietly; she had never been harmed like this before.

Shinji picked her up, surprised by how weightless she felt, and carried her to the temple. He suspected his father of this foul play against them, but he couldn't prove this right now.

"Pema? Can you hear me?" He asked her, setting her on the floor. "Pema?"

"Bottle," she uttered weakly.

"What?"

"Bottle. My…bottle."

Shinji ran to the space where he kept his backpack and removed the bottle.

"Here," he told her.

She took hold of it, removed its cap, and was absorbed into it in a huff of smoke.

Shinji caught the bottle before it fell to the floor, and wondered what Pema was going through.

"Pema?" He asked.

From the tip of the bottle, Pema, about the size of a pocket-size action figure, appeared. She looked a little better.

"I'm okay now, Shinji," she told him. "I got the bullets out."

But he couldn't stop crying. He almost thought that she was going to die, and he'd be alone again.

"It had to be that man," he told her. "He sent that guy here to get rid of you."

"I'm not that easy to get rid of. I'm not going anywhere any time soon."

-x-

With a broken spirit, Gendo was confident that the Third Child would be able to be manipulated by him now. If he made the right moves, he could assure Unit-01 an adequate pilot without risking the First Child until the Second Child and Unit-02 arrived from Germany.

_Everything and everyone exist only to be taken from you,_ he thought, staring at an empty chessboard on his desk, the pieces on the left side. _You will soon understand._

-x-

He wasn't going to forgive his father for this act of cruelty. It was completely unnecessary and only furthered his unwillingness to pilot the Eva again. Bad enough that he was as stubborn as any mule, but it was overkill to send a guy to kill your friend just because you don't want to get your own hands dirty after being told more than once that someone wants nothing to do with any senseless violence against an enemy you don't know anything about. Even when you knew that you could linked to the crime.

"Not sleeping isn't good for you, you know," he heard Pema say to him, and he turned away from the window and moonlight towards Pema, who was by his bedding sheets. "We'll deal with him in due time, Shinji."

He sighed and returned to his bed.

"I just don't want to lose you to anyone," he expressed.

"I'm bound to you. In a way, you're my lifeline. I don't think they could get to me without getting to you. But I won't let anyone hurt you." She told him.

"How are you so confident that things will work out in the end?" He asked her.

"Because when lines are crossed, certain actions against those that crossed the lines will speak louder than the words meant to resolve the matters. I guess one way of putting it is…don't mess with something or someone that can and may hurt you if you go too far. And he may have just done that."

To be continued…

A/N: I bet none of you thought Gendo would stoop this low against Shinji's refusal, huh?


	10. Driven

Creation began on 12-01-15

Creation ended on 12-09-15

Neon Genesis Evangelion

I Dream of Evangelion: Driven

Sitting by the Ashi Lake didn't lift Shinji's spirits up, but Pema sitting beside him did. It was her idea, to let the world know that, even after getting shot four times last night, she was still here and still among the people that would either accept her as a person, judge her for her looks and morals, or ignore her as someone to be overlooked. They had also suspected (though, it was mostly Shinji's belief) that Gendo, who had to be behind the attempted murder on Pema, had them followed by people in the hopes of trying to get Shinji under his possession.

"You do know that if we're being watched out in the open, you can't do anything that risks your life," Shinji told her.

"Then I suppose I'll have to wear a bullet-proof under my clothes," she responded. "I'm actually hoping that they don't try that again. It hurts getting shot at."

"Arf!" The Hokkaido barked at Pema, returning with a small ball in her mouth.

"Okay, Otome," the cursed girl said to the dog, picking up the ball. "Ha!"

She threw the ball further away, and Otome ran after it.

"Why that name, Pema?" Shinji asked her.

"Because that's what you call an untouched lady," she explained.

-x-

"…Can you explain how this girl is still with the Third Child?" Gendo asked the Section Two agent that had committed the misdeed against the Third Child's companion, showing pictures taken from a distance by plain-clothes agents of the girl and boy.

"That…that can't be right," the agent expressed, confused by the girl's presence in each photo. "I shot that girl four times in the chest. She was on her way to the afterlife."

"And you're certain of this?"

"Yes. As soon as the Third Child recognized me, I shot the girl in front of him. I was certain I shot her in the heart, lungs and stomach."

Gendo then dismissed the agent, pondering how the girl survived four bullets to her chest.

"Ikari," went Fuyutsuki to the man, "this is completely unnecessary. He gave you his answer. He wants nothing to do with NERV or the Eva. We can't force him to do something he doesn't want to do."

"We have no other alternative," Gendo responded, but this was just a falsehood response; the truth was that Gendo didn't want to let Shinji walk away from this, no matter what he or anyone else said to him, and as long as he was breathing, he would bend the boy to his will, even if it meant the possibility of killing him.

-x-

"…The city looks so lonely from up here," said Shinji to Pema, standing by an outdoor observation spot that overlooked Tokyo-3.

"It does," she agreed with him. "It looks nice from a distance, but its appearance only obscures its secrets. It may seem welcoming, but it's only a deception."

"At least you can't see the ugliness from here."

"The ugliness?"

"The cruelty, the hurt, the abandonment and such."

"Oh."

"What did you think I meant, Pema?"

"Ugly people."

"NERV is run by an ugly man. Ugly people are people that decide to lie to you and hurt you by whatever means they choose to use."

Truth be told, ever since her fantasy that was triggered by kissing Shinji, Pema has had the small fear that if Shinji ever saw her demonic form, he would view her as ugly. Her mother had told her once that people possessed by demonic entities would reveal the type of person they were deep beneath their skin. If this was true, then the same could've been said for her, as well, being enslaved to a demon as her punishment. She wasn't sure what she'd do if he ever saw the demon that she could turn into when he was placed in unavoidable danger.

"Yeah, that's true," she told him.

Shinji then took a look at Pema's outfit of the day. It was a pair of jeans and a short-sleeved shirt of yellow-colored fabric. On her left arm was a scarf tied around the wrist and on the right arm was a bracelet made of silver.

"Maybe we should get a collar for Otome," he suggested, so that people could return Pema's dog to them if she ever went missing.

Pema blinked, and a small collar appeared in her hands, with a circle with "Otome" engraved on it.

"Will this suffice?" She asked him.

"Yeah," he answered her. "That will do."

-x-

"…And Commander Ikari refuses to give up on him until he submits," Misato told Ritsuko in Central Dogma, "even after Shinji told him outright that he refused."

"Commander Ikari simply isn't the understanding type," Ritsuko expressed. "You either agree with him of your own volition…or he makes you agree with him of your own volition."

"So 'no' is simply a word that doesn't exist in his vocabulary?"

"No, just the word 'refuse'."

"Well, Pema has some considerable influence on Shinji, but just the type that encourages him to stand up to his father."

"You think she's abusing him?"

"No, and she was offended when I thought she was a working girl. She describes Shinji as someone that needs to be protected against corruption."

"Yet, she could be corrupting him."

"He didn't strike me as a sexually-abused kid, Ritsuko. While the girl seems older than he is, it doesn't appear that their relationship is anything but one of acceptance of one another…and the dislike the boy's father after that sit-down yesterday."

-x-

After securing the tickets to a movie they had gone to see after dropping off Otome at the temple, Shinji and Pema sat at the top of the audience and watched the film that everyone was there to see. It was the first film Pema ever saw in this new world, and she had just learned it was a superhero film with more than one hero that spanned an entire universe.

"I had strings, but now I'm free," the damaged robot said before shutting down, as the major antagonist (or the bad guy of the film) escaped without needing to escape physically.

But what confused Pema was the relationship between this woman that had no special powers and was among the only women affiliated with this group of men that had greater abilities or resources than she did and this guy that needed to channel his rage to become a brutal giant. It seemed like they cared about each other, but they couldn't be together because of personal problems.

"But you can see there are no strings on me," she heard a small voice at the end of the scene where there were several robots being built in the abandoned building shown at the beginning of the film.

"What was that singing about?" She asked Shinji.

"It was a song called 'I've Got No Strings'," he answered her. "It was used in an earlier film called _Pinocchio_ about a puppet that gains sentience."

"What is sentience?"

"A quality or condition that allows you think and have feelings, move and manipulate objects, to live like people do."

"But…this Ultron guy doesn't seem interested in living like the people do if he wants to get rid of them. How can he be…sentient?"

"Watch and see."

-x-

"…We've yet to find a Fourth Child for the Eva," said Ritsuko to Gendo, as she gave up on the possibility of recruiting the boy after the sit-down and the attempt of Pema's life went south. "We should hasten the arrival of the Second Child and Unit-02 and reconfigure Unit-01's core to the First Child instead. Consider the Third Child a lost cause."

But Gendo refused to do so just yet. He still had a belief that his son would still be recruited into NERV. The more Shinji persisted in getting back into the Eva, the more Gendo wanted him to do so, just so that he could get closer to his personal goal.

"Sir, it's illogical to continue trying to persuade someone that has made up their mind about what's going on here," Ritsuko persisted. "The more time wasted on the Third Child is more time wasted from dealing with the Angels."

"_Time, money and manpower," _Gendo recalled one of the Committee members express during the last meeting after the Third Angel was dealt with. _"Exactly how much of these must be wasted by your family, Ikari?"_

"He will pilot the Eva," Gendo told Ritsuko, "even if it means he must be forced to do so."

-x-

As day became night again, Shinji and Pema had returned to their temple setting again. The film they saw was quite the exhilarating experience that the girl had. She didn't expect for something viewed as being artificial and inhuman to be afraid of death and stating that human beings are doomed to destroy themselves, no matter what they try…and for another artificial being to see grace in their failures and be naive after only one day of existence.

"People ask for saviors…but settle for servants?" She asked Shinji, blinking her casual clothes off and replacing them with her former wedding dress.

"Heroes are sometimes viewed as civil servants," he explained the Vision's choice of words to her as simple as he knew them. "Police, doctors and nurses, teachers. Civil servants because of their professions. Heroes are no different. They try their best to save people from dangerous situations that even a group of police can't save them from. There was a time when heroes were worshiped and admired by many. Now, the films take them a bit differently. There's no guarantee of adoration from everyone, there's uncertainty that any one hero can stand up to any number of potential threats to any place in existence…and not every hero returns from the battle or war."

As he sat down and removed his shoes by the fireplace, Shinji saw Pema blink a bowel of dog food in her hands and set it down for Otome.

"And the Vision being naive just because he was brought to life the day before Ultron was defeated?" She asked him.

"Sometimes, I find it better to be naive rather than be taught anything by someone that can't be honest about anything that they say to you," he explained. "How does one find honesty in a place where everyone lies to you?"

She sat down across the fireplace from him and responded, "Honesty begins with one's own heart and soul. When you're honest to yourself, you will find that you can be honest with those around you. But…if you can't be honest to yourself…then you can't be honest with anyone."

Shinji set three logs into the fireplace and set them ablaze.

"Speaking from personal experience?"

"Sometimes, personal experience is a good teacher."

-x-

In the dead of the night, the men in black suits from before had shown up at the shrine again with orders to acquire the Third Child and dispose of the girl he was with. This time, deadly force was in force. If the girl could survive four shots to her chest, then she was unlikely to survive her entire body riddled with bullets.

Within the shrine, Shinji slept as peacefully as he could…while Pema, who had just awoken from her own slumber, had a frown upon her face at the disgust and stupidity of these men that refused to leave them alone. What was worst was that she felt the danger they brought with them was enough to put Shinji in danger, and she couldn't allow him to be harmed. She sighed and approached the doors. Her left hand reached out for the knob…and was replaced by a clawed limb.

Stepping out to oppose the men wasn't Pema, anymore, but the same creature that took control of Unit-01 and defeated the Angel, and it made the twelve-men group nervous right now.

"What in the name of…" One of the men gasped.

"Leave," it, no, she growled at them, stepping off the wooden floors and onto the grass. "You're not welcome here."

But one of the agents, the same guy that tried to kill Pema, quickly raised his gun up to shoot at her.

"You're history," he threatened.

However, the creature's eyes flared up…and the guy's gun became heated up, forcing him to drop it to the ground.

"Aaaaaurgh!" He groaned.

The guns of the other eleven agents heated up, as well, causing them to drop them to the ground, too.

"You're all going to suffer my wrath if you don't leave," she threatened them.

But when they brandished another set of firearms, the creature's eyes flared up again…and each of them found themselves wishing that they had taken up the warning to just leave before suffering. Their gun-toting hands were now fused to the molten pulp of metal that was once their guns.

"Aaaaurgh!" They yelled in pain.

Whip! The creature used her tail and knocked three of them off their feet.

"You think you know pain?" She asked them. "I shall make you long for something as merciful as pain by the time I'm through with you."

-x-

Shinji was woken up from a strange dream by Otome, who licked his face.

"Ugh… Okay, Otome, I'm up," he groaned, raising his head up look at his surroundings, and noticed Pema's sheets were shy of herself.

She was over by one of the windows, pouring herself a cup of tea, looking tense about something.

"Are you alright?" He asked her.

Taking a breath before speaking to him, the girl responded, "I'll be alright, Shinji. Just some…unsettled nerves right now."

But it made her feel bad that she wasn't being honest with him right now. That it was only last night that his life was placed in danger, and how the demonic entity she was bound to had taken control of her and resolved the matter. While it didn't kill the men from last night, it did do away with them by sending them elsewhere, for as long as they were around, they would just keep coming, and Shinji would be in danger again and again and again. She wanted to tell him, but wasn't sure how he'd take it.

Shinji got up and walked up to her, stopping two feet from her. He looked at her and wondered if she had a nightmare or if she was still suffering from the other night when she was shot at for the first time.

"Are you sure you're alright, Pema?" He asked her. "I've been worried about you since you were shot at and I thought you were going to die."

Pema set her cup down and placed her left hand on her chest, unable to feel the holes where the guy had shot her. There wasn't even any phantom pain.

"I'll talk to you about it," she told him, "in due time."

Shinji accepted her decision…and hugged her.

-x-

"…The Section Two agents tasked with acquiring the Third Child and the disposal of the girl have all met with disaster?" Gendo asked Fuyutsuki when the elder informed him of the lack of progress made by the men.

"That's right," Fuyutsuki explained, "though we're not sure if they have met with disaster. All we know is each one of them has disappeared. Whatever happened to them may relate to the failed attempt on the girl's life. Ikari, as hard as it seems to accept, we should just forget about trying to get the boy to pilot."

"If only that were possible."

"You know that it is possible. You just won't consider it. And if he were to ever find out that you ordered a hit on the girl, he wouldn't forgive you. Sure enough, he most likely hates you for saying what you said to him the last time he was here."

"We don't have time to waste on emotional children."

"Sometimes, it's better to be emotional…than to be emotionless, Ikari."

-x-

"…You know, I could put a fence around the hot spring," Pema told Shinji, watching walk around the back of the temple.

"Not really a fence, Pema," he told her. "A shed."

"A shed?"

"It would allow us privacy."

"But we live on a mountain."

"That hasn't stopped people from paying us unscheduled or unwanted visits."

"That's true."

"What if they decided to show up when one of us is indisposed or in the spring bathing?"

Pema was unsure of how to answer that question. And it was a question that could've been more directed at her condition as a genie, since she was still very human…and humans were some of the most fragile creatures in existence…and have been for thousands of years. She could probably still suffer the same way people could, since she could experience gunshot wounds. She could probably get sick, but she doubt she could die, not while serving as a vessel to an ancient demon.

"Better safe than sorry?" She asked him, making sure she understood the concept of taking precautions.

"Yeah, Pema," he told her, "and…I don't want anyone to hurt you again."

She could see the heavy concern he had over her well-being, and it hurt her so much that she wanted to tell him what happened last night…but couldn't just yet. He set her free, taught her much about this new world she was in, didn't want to overwork her just because she was a genie…and here she was, keeping secrets from him. She nodded in understanding and then returned to the temple to put on another pot of tea.

_If this is some sort of dream I'm being deceived into believing is real,_ she thought, sitting in front of the fireplace as the kettle was being heated from underneath, _I don't want to wake from it. I don't want to feel like this young man that I now serve__…__is just an illusion for my heart._

To be continued…

A/N: I promise you all, the next chapter will have the Fourth Angel in it.


	11. A Day of Hatred

Creation began on 12-09-15

Creation ended on 12-15-15

Neon Genesis Evangelion

I Dream of Evangelion: A Day of Hatred

"I'll be heading into town to see where I can find some poles, Pema," Shinji told the girl as he put on his coat and shoes. "You should…try to relax. I shouldn't be gone long."

"Okay," she responded, holding her cup of tea.

As he slowly stepped out of the temple, Shinji wondered what was wrong with Pema, as she seemed distant, unlike before the attempt on her life was made. He hoped that she would confide in him soon, as he didn't want to go around guessing on her problem.

_I should get her some flowers,_ he thought, walking down the mountain path. _Or something that she can wear on her wrists or around her neck. She can get anything, but she has nothing that's really hers._

Entering the city limits, he walked towards the nearest hardware store, unaware that he was being followed by a woman in a black suit.

"Target in range," she said into a transceiver on her left ear.

-x-

Standing in front of a large mirror, Pema examined herself as she was, exactly as she had been the night she was damned for her decision not to marry. Her hair without a single strand out of place, her dress looking like it could've cost a fortune in these modern times, and her face looking so young and full of vigor that demonstrated a natural beauty that didn't need any makeup. Yes, she was beautiful…but her beauty masked a darkness that wasn't hers.

_Come on, Pema,_ she tried to think, _even Shinji said it himself. Your father failed you, not the other way around. He spoke of people believing in second chances, to take these negative impacts upon their lives and turn them into positives. And you deserve a second chance, Pema. You deserve a second chance._

_Pema! _She then heard Shinji's voice, as if he had called out to her in distress.

She ran to the front of the temple, seeing no one around, and felt a shift in the air…and the same, dark presence of the demon going up her spine.

-x-

The city sirens went off, alerting the civilians of another Angel approaching, and that they needed to get to their designated shelters.

NERV, in the meantime, was preparing to launch Unit-01 (despite the majority of Rei's injuries not recovering yet) to intercept the Angel.

Gendo wasn't worried; he had the situation under control now.

"Launch Unit-01," ordered Misato to the technicians.

"Launching," responded a male voice.

-x-

The Fourth Angel, looking like a giant, pink and red squid, flew across the hills and into the city, just in time to witness the appearance of Unit-01 standing in the middle of the streets.

-x-

Feeling like he had been struck in the face and on the back of his head, Shinji awoke, finding himself in a compact environment…and soon realized where he was.

"The Eva? Again? Where's the bastard that refuses to take 'no' for an answer?! I want out of here!" He demanded, and found that he was strapped to the seat and his hands tied to the controls. "Damn it!"

In front of him was a large squid out of water, and it approached him. Or rather, it approached the Eva.

"Commence the attack," he heard his father's voice.

"No way," he responded, and tried to make the Eva flee.

-x-

"Oh, man!" A boy with a camcorder cheered, having snuck out of the shelter he was sent to in order to film the Angel and the Eva. "I told you this was worth sneaking out!"

His companion, a boy in a black track suit, sighed at the scene, but noticed how the purple robot seemed to be trying to walk away from the giant squid.

"It's trying to flee?" He questioned.

But the squid-like creature unleashed a pair of glowing tentacles at the robot and entangle it.

-x-

"Aaahh!" Shinji screamed, unable to get free of the Angel's tentacles. "Someone help!"

-x-

"…Wait a minute, this isn't the First Child's synchronization graphs!" Maya Ibuki expressed, examining the pilot's graphs on her monitor. "This is the Third Child's!"

"What did you say?!" Misato demanded. "What is he doing in the Eva?!"

Above everyone else, Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki looked at Gendo and demanded an explanation.

"What did you do, Ikari?" He uttered.

"It's irrelevant," Gendo responded.

"You forced your son into the Eva against his will?!"

"It doesn't matter."

-x-

Floating down to a skyscraper, the demon saw the mockery of the Baron of Darkness get tossed against a hillside. With a greater-than-human sight, it saw that it had just avoided crushing to death two boys around Shinji's age…and felt a weight its human vessel's heart when the boy inside the purple behemoth was hurt.

-x-

"…We can't eject the plug!" Maya informed Misato, as they were cut off from Unit-01 again.

And the worst part was that the Third Child had been incapacitated. With the Angel advancing towards the Eva, he was at the mercy of the enemy.

Suddenly, the Eva got back up, but had that strange armor manifesting on it.

"What in the name of…" Fuyutsuki expressed.

"Hungry," the Eva growled, and the personnel realized that the creature they saw from the previous battle with the Third Angel had returned and taken control of the Eva again. "Hungry."

And for Gendo, this didn't bode well for him at all.

-x-

SLAM! Unit-01, possessed by Pema's demonic nature, head-butted the Fourth Angel, sending it flying away from the hillside to the hillside opposite of the city.

"Whoa!" The boy with the camcorder gasped.

"Let's get outta here!" The boy in the tracksuit gasped, grabbing his friend and running towards the nearest shelter.

As the Fourth Angel got back up after recovering from the crash into the hill, it was unable to block an unanticipated arm thrust from Unit-01, snapping its head up.

Unit-01 then grabbed the Angel's core underneath its head…and its golden-armored torso opened up, revealing fangs that looked like they were made of silver, and consumed the core, along with the other parts of the Angel, like a vacuum cleaner or vortex.

"_Should the enemy that harms the person that sets you free from your imprisonment be greater than that of a mortal person, the Servant Beast of the Djinn shall take possession of whatever is used to resolve the matter. Whatever is taken over by the Servant Beast shall change to accommodate it. A giant of stone or metal shall become no different an extension of the beast."_ Pema's accursed tormentor informed her in the past. _"And should they have power, the Servant Beast shall be bound by sacred law to take possession of their strengths. Whoever is to be consumed by the beast shall become part of the beast. Whosoever is to be consumed by the beast__…__shall become a part of it for as long as it exists, their power becomes its own."_

And this was how the demon gained strength in the process. By absorbing the Angels, they became one with it. Pema was the witness to this ability with the first Angel that harmed Shinji, and now she was bearing witness to this Angel's being absorbed into the demon. Watching and feeling how their powers were pooled into its own.

"Adolf Hitler's ghost!" The boy with the camcorder gasped, filming the whole scene. "God help us all."

-x-

"…Just like the last time," Fuyutsuki uttered, recalling how the Eva consumed the Third Angel when covered in that armor whenever that creature showed up and took control of it.

On the screens, the Eva reached behind itself…and removed the back armor that covered the Entry Plug, forcing it to jut out. When it was removed and held within its own, left hand, the creature that took control of the Eva ripped the plug's emergency hatch open…and removed the Third Child from within it. It held him in its arms, seeing that he had a bloody gash on his forehead, but was still alive. As the armor evaporated, the creature disappeared with the Third Child in its possession, leaving the Eva with only the minor damage that was self-inflicted upon it when removing the plug.

-x-

The recovery of Unit-01 revealed that, just like with the Third Angel, there was no change in the Eva. Whatever it was that the creature that appeared again did, it only caused the Eva to fall under its control and nearly nothing else that they could explain.

Ritsuko couldn't find any other solution to how this was so, since only children born after Second Impact should've been the only ones capable of piloting the Evas.

"…But this time, it took Shinji," went Misato to her, as they were evaluating the lesser damages to both the city and the Eva. "Why would it do that? And why would the commander have him inside the Eva against his will?"

"It's unknown at this point," the faux-blond, hoping that Misato wouldn't suspect that she had a hand in the Third Child's involvement.

-x-

Opening his eyes, Shinji found himself back at the temple, on his bed sheets.

"Wha… What happened?" He wondered.

"Just some…unexpected happenings, Shinji," he heard Pema say to him, sitting beside him on his left side, sliding a small tray of dim sum meals and a cup of tea to him.

He accepted and asked her, "The last thing I remember is being knocked out. Do you know what happened to me afterward?"

Pema turned away from slightly before responding, "You were inside that Baron of Darkness a second time…and made to fight another one of those creatures. You suffered a minor head injury…and the behemoth took out the creature."

Shinji did recall seeing a giant, squid-like creature attack him, but everything else was a blur. And in the confusion, all he could hear was someone trying to talk to him, saying that he was to be protected and he was more precious than a construct made to fight an enemy he knew nothing about.

"Did you rescue me, Pema?" He asked her.

"Kind of," she answered him. "It's…hard to explain."

Before she could even say anything that could've made the explanation simple enough to comprehend, Shinji hugged her tightly.

"Thank you, Pema," he praised her, and she held onto him.

To be continued…

A/N: What do you think will happen next? Now the demon has the power of two Angels.


	12. Disgrace

Creation began on 12-15-15

Creation ended on 12-31-15

Neon Genesis Evangelion

I Dream of Evangelion: Disgrace

A week went by since the Fourth Angel attack, and NERV was met with some insecurity due to what had occurred. What some thought was likely a kidnapping by a strange creature could've been something else entirely. And much of the personnel found it hard to follow the orders of Commander Ikari after it was deduced that he had his son captured and placed into the Eva against his will, despite being told that his son wouldn't help their agency fight the Angels because of personal issues.

Gendo paid them no mind, and instead had to figure out where this creature left with the Third Child, just so that he could be brought back into the fold of the scenario, regardless of the outcome.

-x-

Misato, simply because she felt that Pema had a right to know what happened, drove up to the abandoned temple. She wasn't prepared for what was outside the temple, though.

_Oh, my God,_ she thought, seeing Shinji throwing a Frisbee for the Hokkaido to fetch.

Shinji, turning to see the purple-haired woman's car, sighed as he tried to wonder why she had returned.

"Shinji," he heard her express. "You're here?"

"Yes," he answered her. "Where else would I be? Not with the people you work with…and for."

"But… But you were taken by a creature that used the Eva to defeat the Fourth Angel," she explained to him. "It took you out of the Entry Plug and disappeared."

"Pema explained to me what happened. The creature brought me here and left before I ever woke up. If it did anything beyond returning me here, Pema hasn't told me…and I won't press her to tell me."

"Shinji?" They both looked at the temple and saw Pema, damp and covered in a blue bathrobe. "Are you alright?"

"It's just Misato here," he told her.

Pema crossed her arms and felt that she was going to have a harder time concealing this dark part of herself if others started poking their nose around too much.

"Uh, hey, Pema," Misato greeted the girl. "I thought that Shinji was not here and that you needed to know what happened."

"It's a subject we'd rather forget because of the involuntary force that was involved," Pema responded. "I saw the mockery of the Baron of Darkness go up against a strange creature and had my doubts that someone willing and able was inside it. That man did it. He actually did it. He crossed a line and forced Shinji back into that thing as if to send him to his execution."

"If he…so much as tries it again," went Shinji, "I don't have any hope for him to still have much of a face to show people."

-x-

"…And this is the second time that creature has appeared and usurped the Eva from NERV's control and used it to defeat an Angel," went SEELE 12 to Gendo during the meeting with the council.

"And again under a specific circumstance," added SEELE 04.

"What circumstance?" Gendo questioned.

"You could've used the First Child to pilot Unit-01 if the Third Child was unwilling, but instead, you forced your son back into the Eva and against the Angel. The creature that took control of the Eva and disposed of the threat…and removed the Third Child from the Entry Plug. Does it not seem unusual that it did so this time and not the initial time with the Third Angel?"

"This creature, whatever it is," suggested SEELE 09, "doesn't seem to demonstrate any interest, whatsoever, in our affairs. It seems only interested in the Third Child."

This made Gendo feel crossed. He couldn't believe that any creature that hasn't been documented or even recorded for modern history to have some sort of interest in the Third Child. It was ludicrous to believe so! And even if it were so, why the Third Child?

-x-

"You saw the boy with the girl?" Ritsuko asked Misato as she returned to the base.

"Unless it was a trained doppelganger or a clone made to replace him, that was Shinji I saw at the temple with Pema," Misato informed her.

"And did he say anything about what happened?"

As they entered the cafeteria, Misato told the faux-blond, "Neither wanted to talk about it, as they were both infuriated by what happened. Shinji's resolve to never pilot the Eva again just got bigger…and Pema… I think she's all but expressed that she's disgusted with us as a whole if we had some indirect hand in putting the boy in the Eva against his will. Before I left, I saw her holding his hand as they went back into the temple with a dog. I think she's more protective of him than even we realize. She wants to keep him safe from anyone that wants to hurt him, even if they include his father."

"But since the Third Child hasn't been taken elsewhere…Commander Ikari will have to be informed," Ritsuko expressed, which caused Misato to repeat what she had mentioned about Shinji and Pema being against any further involvement with the agency.

"The girl is completely against Shinji being inside the Eva, which she refers to as the Baron of Darkness, and Shinji wants nothing to do with us," she told her. "If they refuse and want us to leave him alone, we should do just that, not continue to harass them."

"Orders came from Commander Ikari to inform him if the Third Child turned up," Ritsuko explained.

"We keep doing this, knowing full well of the repercussions, we might risk causing them to leave to God-knows-well. I'm surprised they haven't left yet."

-x-

Because they both could still smell the stench of that LCL, Shinji took a dip in the hot spring again. It was also because Pema could describe the odor in the worst way that it ever could smell like, now and later on. To her, it smelled like blood, something neither of them needed to smell around them. Even with shampoo they had acquired, it lingered, so it seemed that a much longer time in the hot spring was required to eliminate the stench from his body.

_We were disgraced by them,_ he thought, finding it difficult to relax in the spring. _They kidnapped me in the middle of the daytime…and Pema worried over me because of them. It wasn't just a disgrace we were dealt. It was disrespect. I told them no, and they still crossed the line between acceptance and disrespect. How do you recover from that?_

Meanwhile, in the temple, Pema had conjured a small bowl of jook in front of her…and then sighed at its bareness. She then blinked her eyes a second time and the jook was made slightly better by having eggs and pieces of celery added to its bare design.

_It wasn't just Shinji they disgraced,_ she thought, conjuring another bowl of a hot beverage. _They disgraced me, what my responsibilities to Shinji are. He is the one that set me free; therefore, I serve him, regardless of his decisions or ethics. Or mine, for that matter. He doesn't want to inflict suffering upon anyone, which keeps his soul pure of any cruelty, but they tried to make him face a creature that now resides with the demon and the other creature within me. If they try it again__…__and he suffers a fate worse than what he experienced the last two times__…__I fear I won't be able to protect him or even help him recover from it._

"Uh…Pema?" She turned around and looked at Shinji, who had returned from the hot spring, dressed in dull shorts and a orange shirt, his hair still damp from his bath. "Are you okay?"

"I'm okay," she answered him. "Are you okay?"

He came over and sat down on the floor in front of her.

"I am now," he expressed.

-x-

Gendo had to take into consideration that SEELE was far from being mislead by the actions of this creature that had removed the Third Child from Unit-01 and returned it to the woman that he was living in an abandoned temple with. But the only way he would know for sure…was if the boy had been placed in danger against another Angel. Only then, would NERV and SEELE know for sure if this creature seemed to show up only when the boy was the one in danger.

_When the next Angel arrives,_ he thought, sitting at his desk, looking at the photos of the boy, the woman and the creature, _we will know for sure._

To be continued…

A/N: Here's the last chapter of this story for this year. Until next year. Peace!


	13. Heartless

Creation began on 01-02-16

Creation ended on 01-06-16

Neon Genesis Evangelion

I Dream of Evangelion: Heartless

A/N: Here's the new chapter of the newest year.

Shinji had decided to forego the shed idea and settled for Pema doing it for them, as it was easier (and she enforced that it was a simple task for her, that she wouldn't be overworked), and spent the rest of his time with her in the temple. Truth be told, he felt safest with her.

With the setting of the sun and the blanketing of the new night, the two were asleep on the floor…until Pema awoke from a period of darkness, staring sadly at the wooden ceiling where a lantern hung. She got up and looked over at Shinji, who still slept as peacefully as one could after a life-threatening situation he had been placed in. Looking further away, she noticed that Otome was looking back at her; she wasn't even sure how long the Hokkaido had been awake or if she had even been asleep. And then she got onto her feet and stepped out onto the porch, slumping on the banister as she looked past the trees and at the technological monster that was Tokyo-3, which, while an improvement from the slums of where she once resided, didn't do Shinji or her any justice in the last few days because of NERV.

The lights weren't even as bright as the stars were…or the fire they used in place of electrical substitutes, which were a meager benefit when you lived in such a primitive setting.

"How can a place like Tokyo-3 seem so welcoming…but be very heartless?" She wondered aloud.

-x-

"…It's been two weeks since the Fourth Angel, Ikari," Fuyutsuki informed Gendo, holding a folder under his left hand

"The Fifth Angel should be around in at least another week," Gendo expressed.

"And by that time, the First Child should be ready to pilot Unit-01."

"No. The First Child will still pilot Unit-00. The Third Child will pilot Unit-01."

This, of course, had Fuyutsuki ticked; even after what happened with the Fourth Angel, Gendo still wanted to use his own son for that particular Eva.

"How long do you intend to go after him until fate decides to throw another curve ball your way, Ikari?" He asked him.

"Until he's no longer necessary," Gendo answered him.

-x-

"Hey, Pema?" Shinji asked the older girl as they sat down and ate breakfast together.

"Yes, Shinji?" She responded.

"After this…you wanna go to the beach?" He suggested.

"Sure, but…I thought you couldn't swim."

"You don't really need to swim to enjoy your time at the beach. And…the beach is where we first met."

"Yeah…it is."

"Arf!" Otome barked, and Pema petted her head.

"I guess she wants to go, too."

-x-

Only because she wasn't viewed as much of a threat to either the Third Child or the girl he lived with, Misato was again ordered to visit the temple and attempt contact with them. She was starting to suspect that Commander Ikari was doing this to try and maintain some degree of control over them boy when there was no control at all. And then, there was her own suspicion that the creature that had shown up twice when Shinji was endangered was no mere coincidence; a strange creature that appears every time he was placed in jeopardy couldn't be a coincidence.

_And yet, the only people that may know more than anyone else does are those two,_ she thought as she stopped her car by the temple. _Maybe if I ask them just to indulge my curiosity, they'll tell me._

She got out and walked over to the porch, finding it looking, as hard as it seemed, looking rather like a home now than it did a temple. She knocked on the door, but then noticed a note on it.

"_Gone to the beach,"_ it read, and Misato sighed; this was an unexpected happening.

_Oh, great,_ she thought, but then realized that there were no beaches near Tokyo-3 or the surrounding region. _Why would they go to the beach at a time like this?_

-x-

It wasn't like the small beach where they met, but Shinji couldn't care about that now. This was a larger beach on one of the few places left on the planet that was untouched by people, and the weather was exceptionally pleasant. The warm sunlight, the cool water and the gentle breeze.

"Arf!" Otome barked as she ran on the sand after Pema, who was dressed in a one-piece swimsuit that was a green version of the one he saw her change her outfit to when they met prior to going to Tokyo-3.

"Ha-ha-ha!" Pema laughed as the small waves came up to her ankles as she ran across the wet sand.

Shinji sat on the large, yellow blanket under a large umbrella as he watched the two play. This was definitely something they needed, as he felt that he could forget about what happened to them in Tokyo-3 with NERV and the Angels. Though, he had think decent thoughts whenever he saw Pema in her swimsuit because of the slight highlighting of her chest area. It wasn't even that Pema's bust was quite small, probably between an A-cup or B-cup, but she filled out the suit quite well in a way.

_Then again, she's the only girl I really find attractive since I met her,_ he thought, noticing the lower curves of her bust on her swimsuit. _Oh, come on, Shinji! Think about something else!_

Pema came over and sat on the blanket with him and Otome followed suit.

"That was actually quite exhilarating, and I can't swim, either," she told Shinji, holding her legs under her chin.

"It's so relaxing," he agreed with her.

-x-

"They left to go to the beach?" Ritsuko asked Misato when she returned to the base. "Unless they planned on venturing to Okinawa, there aren't many beaches anywhere near here."

"That's what I suspected, too, but that's too far away from here," she told her. "It could take them days just to get there on foot."

"Could the girl have fled with him as some sort of leverage?"

"Pema doesn't strike me as the kind of person that would just take him anyplace against his will. She views Shinji as someone that needs to be kept safe from danger, but I don't think they'd stay away from the temple for too long."

"Why is that?"

"Because the place has this feeling of home for the two. There's nothing more welcoming than a place that isn't too primitive or too advanced."

-x-

As the night retook the skies, Shinji and Pema sat in front of a small fire on the beach while Otome sat in between Pema and Shinji.

"I don't think I've ever had as much fun before as I do with you, Pema," Shinji told her.

"Yeah," she responded, though she had a sad smile on her face. "I've never had as much fun before myself, either."

He looked at her and noticed her miserable expression.

"Are you okay, Pema?"

"I'm okay."

"You look sad."

"I wish I had thought of this today."

"We couldn't have gotten here without you. There's…no success in even the most minor of achievements without any effort put into them. I merely suggested that we go to the beach, but you put in the effort for us to get here. You got us here…and we just had what may very well be the day our lives…so far."

Pema sighed and decided that she needed to be open with Shinji about a crucial aspect of her current state of being.

"Shinji, I have to show you something that isn't very…easy to comprehend," she told him.

"What do you mean?" He asked her.

"You remember how I told you of my punishment for refusing to marry the lord's son?"

"Yeah, you were cursed to live as a genie to whoever was the one able to release you from the bottle."

"You just haven't seen the source of my curse. Every time you're placed in inescapable danger where your life in at risk, I'm not myself during those times."

She got up off the blanket and walked a few feet from him and Otome, standing behind the fire as it illuminated her.

"You might not like what I'm going to show you, but all I ask is that you at least see it for what it is," she suggested from him, and closed her eyes, willing herself to change. _He needs to know. I can't keep this secret from him._

She felt the demon stirring in her, and how her body began the transition.

Shinji saw how her body was then replaced by that of a creature he had never seen before. It looked like some sort of cross between a reptile and a feline, exhibiting a mostly-reptilian physique with blue and green colors on the tiny scales that covered the majority of its exposed body, with tiny fangs in its snout, cat-like whiskers on the sides and strands of black and white fur leading from the back of its head down to its tail. He saw that its left eye was completely white while the right eye was totally black, and its tattered clothing looked like Pema's wedding dress, failing at hiding the muscularity in its arms and legs, not even the gold and silver shackles on its arms hid the would-be brutality it could've unleashed upon anyone. There was absolutely no trace of Pema anywhere on this creature, no matter how hard Shinji tried to look for her.

"This is the extent of my punishment," he heard it, no, he heard her say to him. "Every time your life is endangered…this is what becomes of me until the threat on your life is resolved."

Shinji got up and slowly approached her, being cautious because he hadn't encountered a creature like this before. From a distance, this form Pema was in was at least as tall as his father and Ms. Katsuragi by being over six feet in height (possibly over eight feet). But she seemed close to Pema's normal size by looking crouched down. He slowly raised his right hand up to make contact with her head, but kept a distance.

"You don't need to say it," she told him, turning her face away. "I don't even recognize my voice in this form. I'm hideous."

Shinji's hand made contact with her head, feeling the damp, scaly, flesh-like texture of her body, and her left eye (despite having no iris) turned to indicate looking at him.

"My father is hideous," he uttered to her. "The guy that shot at you is hideous. These creatures that NERV calls the Angels are hideous. You're not hideous, Pema."

She turned her head back to face him, hearing the quickening of his heartbeat; she smell the subtle fear in him.

"You're afraid," she called him out.

"Yes, I am afraid," he confessed, "but not of you. Not of your cursed form. I'm afraid…of losing you."

"Losing me?"

He raised his left hand up and was now holding her head in his subtle grasp.

"If something happened to you… If people with intentions less than peaceful were to come after you in this form… I'd worry about what they'd do to you. That's what I fear." He told her.

She raised her right arm up and slowly closed it around his left arm.

"I think if I wanted to, I fear hurting you with these claws," she told him.

"Only an uncaring person would hurt someone," he responded. "Someone that saves me from danger can't be uncaring."

And with that, Pema returned to her true form and held Shinji in her embrace.

-x-

Rather than return to the temple, Shinji, Pema and Otome opted to spend the night on the beach. The sound of the waves was relaxing, and the fire was still burning so there was sufficient light to illuminate the surrounding area. All that was really needed was a tent for the vacationing trio.

Otome slept near Pema's feet; even after seeing what she looked like when Shinji was placed in danger, the dog still stayed close to her owner.

As Shinji slept in front of Pema, said girl had a small smile on her face as she watched him sleep, her right hand placed atop his left hand.

_Even if this is just a small comfort,_ she thought, feeling that this was a happy feeling she couldn't fully embrace while under the curse, even if her emotions were unaffected by being bound to an ancient demon, _it makes me happy to know that he cares._

-x-

It seemed like a foolish idea, but since Misato found the note that stated Shinji and Pema had gone to the beach, it was her job to leave a note to the pair that informed them that she would be coming back to the temple every day until they had returned. She never got the chance to leave the note in her coat pocket, though. Not after the site in front of her.

Shinji and Pema on the roof of the temple, and Shinji was pointing up at the clouds while Pema was propped on her hands as she laid back.

"Did you two really go to the beach?!" She shouted at them, getting their attention.

Shinji held his head with his left hand while Pema leaned forward, looking down at the woman.

To be continued…


	14. Intrusive Minds

Creation began on 01-06-16

Creation ended on 05-04-16

Neon Genesis Evangelion

I Dream of Evangelion: Intrusive Minds

_"Yes, we went to the beach,"_ Shinji's voice echoed in Misato's mind as she made the drive back to the Geo-Front, _"but I don't see how that's any of your superiors' business, though."_

"_But in one day?"_ Misato had questioned him.

"_People can do a lot in a day. It's been known to happen."_

_He wasn't being very forthcoming with me,_ she thought, trying to understand whatever it was that Shinji wasn't telling her in her last visit. _You try to press him about something, it seems like he feels threatened by you and tries to avoid saying anything about whatever's on his mind._

At first, she thought that he was simply invoking his right to have his secrets about anything others wanted to know about, but then she suspected that it might've had something to do with Pema herself.

_What is it about her that has him gravitate towards her?_ She wondered.

-x-

"…I'm convinced that jerk had her come here to keep tabs on us," Shinji told Pema as they were preparing dinner for the night.

"It's not uncommon for people to eavesdrop on other people," Pema responded, cutting up pieces of celery and dumping the chopped piece into a small bowl. "Curiosity begets suspicion."

"But suspicion brings unwanted attention from unwanted people."

"And these unwanted people beget unnecessary complications. Someone wants to know someone else's business, even when they should know that a person's business is their own concern, not theirs."

As Shinji prepared to take the kettle full of tea to heat up over the fire, Pema carried the tray of onigiri (rice balls) and miso soup near the central fireplace of the temple.

"Pema?" Shinji asked.

"Yes?" She responded, sitting down on the floor mat on the two-step space around the fireplace.

"When you said that there were many things that people weren't meant to have… What were those things you were thinking of when you said that? When Ms. Katsuragi was here that time that man wanted to see me about piloting the Eva again."

"To sum it all up in these words, Shinji," she stated, "power. The power to control without restraint, the power to dominate without fear of repercussions, the power to reshape the world in your own image, to decide everything for everyone, whether they agree with you or not."

"You mean…god-like power?"

"That's right. The power of the deities themselves. If you possess such power, you're on par with the deities that existed before you. But they've been around for far longer than you and have attained a greater sense of understanding the world better than any number of ordinary people believe that they do, so there's always a reason to everything that they do."

"From what I've been told growing up, my relatives tend to believe the gods are cruel and uncaring."

"That's what I thought, too. Except only a handful are actually like that. The rest of them aren't cruel and uncaring. People that refuse to understand the reasons behind their choices believe them to be cruel and uncaring. I don't blame the deities for what happened to me or my family all those years ago. It was just like you said, Shinji; it was my father that was to blame for my family's misfortune, not I when I chose not to marry the lord's son. Not many realize that many of the things and people we have in our lives are what give them stability. No stability means no sense of happiness or a feeling of fulfillment."

"I didn't really get much of any sense of stability with my aunt and uncle…and I don't have any with that man, either. Ever since I met you, you've given me stability. You make me happy, make me feel that it's a good thing to be alive."

"You give me stability, too, Shinji. I'm glad to have met you that day on the beach."

And then, either because a sense of need or just because they were so close at the moment, they kissed.

-x-

"…I take it your visit to the temple means that the Third Child and the girl were there?" Ritsuko asked Misato.

"Yeah, and Shinji was completely defensive when I asked about where he and Pema went," she responded, sitting down in a chair. "He claims they went to the beach, but it's hard to disbelieve him when he's holding hands with the girl and seems comforted by her presence."

"And he didn't say how they got to the beach?"

"He told me, among the fact that it wasn't anyone's business on how they got to the beach, that they did so within a day, that a lot can get done in a day."

"Not a lot can happen in a day, Misato."

"Try telling him that. It did seem like they had a good time, though."

And with this discovery, Ritsuko knew that Commander Ikari would have to be informed that his son was back.

-x-

"…I didn't know miso soup could taste so good, Shinji," said Pema to the boy as they were laying on their sheets after dinner.

"It's a common dish, but it's one of the best ones that offers the best taste," Shinji responded. "Pema?"

"Yes?"

"When I was in danger because of the Angels, you told me that you absorbed them?"

Pema rolled onto her front and looked at him.

"Yes, I did," she answered. "Why do you ask?"

"When you're the demon…does it hurt you to absorb them?" He asked her.

"No, Shinji, it doesn't hurt me. I'm not even sure the demon reacts to pain like we do when we're harmed. But I do know that the demon gets stronger when it absorbs a creature greater than a mere mortal, it takes possession of their strengths, adding their power to its own. Whatever or whoever is absorbed by the demon…becomes a part of it."

"So then, the two Angels that put me in danger… They're not exactly dead, are they?"

"No. They were consumed by the demon, but they weren't killed. They were…more like locked away in the same darkness I was once locked away in, but still alive, under the servitude of the demon that became stronger than the two of them were on their own."

"And the more Angels that are consumed, the stronger the demon becomes?"

"Yeah."

"I apologize if I sound suspicious or if I have an agenda. I just needed to know if you were affected by the demon."

She reached out to place her left hand over his and gave a smile.

"I appreciate your concern for me," she told him. "I promise you that if the demon starts to affect me, you'll be the first to know."

"Hmm," they both heard Otomo as she came over and rubbed her head against Pema's neck.

"Eh-heh-heh," Pema chuckled.

-x-

With the new information that the Third Child had returned to the temple, Gendo had put into motion what was to occur before the next Angel arrived. If this strange creature appeared only to protect the boy, then that would make him an invaluable specimen.

-x-

The next day, after breakfast, at Pema's suggestion, Shinji, Otomo and she had walked back around the countryside. In many ways, this was to get far away from Tokyo-3 because of its bad air that reached up to the temple; Pema said that the air outside the temple from the city smelled like shame and deceit.

_Pema must have a greater sense of smell than anyone else does,_ Shinji thought as he saw Pema, dressed in a pink shirt and white shorts as she walked Otomo on a leash.

-x-

"…The Third Child and the girl are in the countryside," Gendo was informed by a Section Two agent that kept a distance from his son and the girl.

"You know what to do," he ordered the agent.

-x-

"…Shinji, I've never done something like this before," said Pema to Shinji, sitting against a tree, doing nothing as Shinji sketched her.

"Me, neither, Pema," he responded, just as a cold breeze swept past the two while Otomo sat in Pema's lap. "This would be easier with a camera, but then that defeats the purpose of putting in any effort in drawing you on paper."

_It takes effort just to try and see what you can do, Shinji, _she thought with a smile on her face.

Shinji saw her smile, and couldn't help but smile back at her.

"Arrf," Otomo whined, looking down at the dusty road that led back to the road leading to and away from Tokyo-3. "Arrf!"

"Shinji," Pema sighed, getting the same feeling as Otomo got, "we're going to have to cut this short."

Shinji closed his pad and got up. Whatever Pema and Otomo knew was coming was enough to make him accept that it was not welcome. And a moment later, he saw some men in black suits walking towards them.

"What is wrong with these people?" He questioned. "Why can't they just leave us alone?"

"Should we try to run through the trees?" Pema suggested to him.

"Yeah, let's try that," he agreed with her, and they ran into the woods.

The men in black gave chase after the two and the dog.

-x-

"…Ikari, you have gone too far," Fuyutsuki expressed his opinion on what Gendo had decided upon with his son and the girl he lived with. "Forcing him into the Eva will not solve anything. You're just going to cause further discord."

"We have no time to waste on the defiance of a spoiled child and a possible hindrance," Gendo declared, unfazed by his decision.

-x-

With ample time and opportunity, Pema blinked her eyes, thinking of the temple, and bringing herself, Shinji and Otomo back to it.

Shinji, who felt like he had been taken through a shift in time and space, staggered a little and leaned against a wall.

"Whoa," he sighed. "I know we did this once before, but it felt different this time."

"Yeah, I know," she told him, feeling a little disoriented herself. "It'll pass in a moment."

And she was right, for the disorientation did pass, and they were fine once more.

"Arf," Otomo ran over and hid behind the fireplace.

Shinji went over to the doors and windows of the temple to make sure they were locked and secure, also looking out the windows to make sure that there wasn't anyone out there that wasn't supposed to be. He and Pema would have to come up with a course of action to counter his father's actions against them. And all because the guy refused to accept that his son wanted nothing to do with a war against an enemy he didn't really know anything about that probably wanted to make mankind an extinct species. But, in all honesty, Shinji didn't want to abandon the temple after he and Pema made it feel like a place they could call home…and it was actually the only place he felt he could call home ever since he and Pema found it.

"Shinji?" Pema called over to him as he went over and picked up his backpack.

"Yes, Pema?" He responded, turning around to give her his attention.

"Can I suggest something?"

"Yes, of course."

"NERV…has only seen the demon I'm bound to whenever you're placed in danger…but they don't know that I'm the demon," she stated, "and the demon has already taken two of these Angels they pitted you against…"

"Pema," he stopped her, concerned, "what are you saying?"

"If they put you in danger, I will become the demon to protect you…but if these Angels are the danger your father seeks to pit you against…then I can take control of the Eva, the Baron of Darkness, and take possession of the Angels."

"You mean, let that man think he can force me to do his work…but the demon side of you absorbs the Angels and ends the danger before it escalates?"

"The very thing I would regret to the core of my soul is to hurt you in any way, Shinji…but what are our other alternatives…besides possibly leaving?"

-x-

Misato returned to the temple again, under orders from Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki to see if Shinji and Pema were there since she was seen as a friendly face.

"I swear, those two are likely to skip town if NERV keeps hassling them," she uttered to herself, getting out of her car and walking towards the temple. _Why do I feel like Pema's the one that may try to break my legs?_

"…If they're not going to leave us alone, what other choice do we have, Pema?" She heard Shinji's voice inside the temple.

"Well, we shouldn't agree to everything they ask of us," Pema's voice responded. "If your father's not interested in you as his son, then he could at least accept that you're more than capable of making your own decisions, that you don't need people watching after you."

"You're the only one I trust, Pema. I'd rather stay here in the temple with you than in that city with other people I don't know or trust. NERV can either accept what we view as our terms…or that man that thinks he can control and exploit me and tried to have you killed in front of me can start looking for another kid that's willing to be ordered around by him."

Misato backed away from the door, surprised by what had been said by Shinji about Pema nearly being killed by his father.

Creak! The wooden beam under her left foot went, and she heard a gasp inside the temple.

"Who's there?" Shinji's voice demanded.

"It's just me, Misato," she gave up and let them know she was present.

The door opened and an incredibly-frustrated Shinji Ikari was present, accompanied by a mildly-unsettled Pema, holding her dog that was growling mildly at the older woman.

"This hasn't been a good afternoon, Ms. Katsuragi," Shinji addressed her.

"You said your father tried to have her killed," she spoke back. "Is that true?"

"Isn't that something you would've been informed of?"

"No. I swear, I knew nothing about this."

"One of that man's men in black suits raised a gun at Pema and tried to shoot her in front of me. That's hurtful. That's cruel, and all because I trust her more than I hate him. If he thinks so little of me, why have me followed? Why persist in something that he should know is almost unlikely to happen on his terms? Is he desperate or just stupid?"

-x-

"Section Two lost track of them, Ikari?" Fuyutsuki informed Gendo later that evening. "They just disappeared."

Gendo was irritated to know that the boy and his outsider friend had just eluded him. He held up a photograph of the Third Child and the older girl taken from earlier on the night he tried to have the girl executed…because he hated the sight of them passionately kissing.

"Ikari," Fuyutsuki uttered, having seen the photograph, too, "this has gone too far. You have gone too far…and you refuse to be reasonable or accepting of your son's decisions."

As he walked away, Fuyutsuki pondered on what he was going to do next. Most likely, he would hand in his resignation…and tell Shinji the truth to everything NERV and its predecessor agency had done…and was attempting to do by trying to use him.

To be continued…

A/N: How many of you feel Pema's concerns for Shinji are genuine? That her unwillingness to endanger his life is what makes her the ideal romantic interest for Shinji? And how she can use the demon side of her curse to end the feud with the Angels sooner and keep Instrumentality from ever happening and harming others?


	15. Cold Terms

Creation began on 05-04-16

Creation ended on 05-10-16

Neon Genesis Evangelion

I Dream of Evangelion: Cold Terms

He was surprised by their presence as he stepped out of the base. That was all Fuyutsuki could know he was feeling when he saw Captain Katsuragi with Shinji and the girl. And the fact that the boy seemed beyond angry was a given.

"Captain Katsuragi," he uttered, his voice showing his surprise as the three came by and the older woman stopped in front of him while the other two continued to walk into the building.

"It came to my attention from them that a Section Two agent had actually shot at Pema recently, the night of the day of the sit-down that didn't go so well," Misato expressed. "They showed me the bullets that, apparently, Pema had managed to remove from her body with Shinji's help."

Fuyutsuki looked back at Shinji and Pema, who had stopped by the door leading into the building after they stepped in, and wondered how the girl could still be alive and well if she had been shot four times.

Pema looked back at him with an expression that seemed to be a cross between anger and anticipation; she was just waiting for a reason to feel that Shinji was in any danger after coming back down here.

"Although it was the agent that shot her," Misato continued, "Shinji still holds Commander Ikari responsible for the attempt on Pema's life. While I told him it would likely be impossible for him to take the commander down through legal channels, he's here to let him know that he's not going to forgive him for trying to take away his only friend and will do whatever he has to in order to force him to accept that he won't be expected to follow any demands that are expected of him."

-x-

Everyone was surprised to see the Third Child had returned to NERV HQ, along with the older girl that he lived inside an abandoned temple with. They were both curious to why they had returned…and what was to be expected of their return.

Even Gendo was left to ponder the potential outcome of their presence as they entered his office.

"What brings you…and her back here?" He questioned Shinji.

"Besides your stubbornness?" Shinji responded, not even trying to hide his anger. "Your merciless responses to my choices that I make with Pema. I tell you I won't do something you want for me to do, and you send your relentless thugs in suits to bother us. I tell you I want nothing to do with you…and you send someone to try and kill Pema to get back at me, thinking I would cooperate, and that's as low as you can possibly sink in your area of merciless and madness."

"What about her crime of hebephilia?" Gendo responded, hoping to counter the boy.

"What are you talking about? She hasn't committed any crimes."

"So you say…when you have no understanding of yourself being the victim. A rather pathetic victim."

Gendo then threw a picture over at the two, showing that Gendo had people following them, watching their every move outside the temple.

Pema looked at the picture and saw that it was of Shinji and herself sharing a kiss.

"You've been rather careless to let yourself be used by an older woman," Gendo told Shinji.

But Shinji, rather than back down, refused to be intimidated and responded, "Don't act like you're a concerned parent when you're nothing more than a disgrace yourself. You send your people to spy on us? You must be either desperate to think that I will bend over for you…or just dumb to think that you can do what you want and get away with it. The only crimes I see that were committed were the ones you committed. Stalking is a crime, and so is attempted murder in Pema's case. We still have the bullets used on her."

"And I still have the bullet wounds that haven't even recovered yet," Pema added, putting her right hand at the base of her shirt, willing to lift it up and show the injuries that she could will her body to show in case further proof was needed. "Perhaps you should have a look at them."

Suddenly, Fuyutsuki and Misato came into the office, and Shinji picked up the picture and brandished it in front of them.

"Exactly how far does whatever legal protection your agency has go?" He asked them. "I don't appreciate our personal lives being violated, regardless of your reasons."

Misato was surprised by the picture…and noticed how Shinji didn't seem to be coerced or forced into the position with Pema in the picture. If anything, the boy was as much of a participant as the older girl was in the picture.

Fuyutsuki, who had seen the picture already, was really left pondering whether or not to tell Shinji everything he knew about NERV's intentions.

"Your actions are bull and this 'A'-hole is full of bull," Shinji expressed, pointing his left thumb back at Gendo. "So, what is it, exactly, that you people want from us?"

"And don't give us any of that deceit that you did the first time we were here," Pema added in, crossing her arms over her chest. "We're tired of being bothered over petty reasons brought on by petty people."

"What did you just say?" Gendo demanded, feeling disrespected by the girl.

Pema looked at him and refused to be bullied by him; the guy was just as low as her father had been in the days leading to her arranged marriage that didn't go as planned.

"She doesn't have to repeat herself if she doesn't want to," Shinji told him, defending Pema.

_Ouch,_ thought Misato, impressed by how Shinji seemed whenever around Pema. _What's next, asking about that creature that appeared whenever he was harmed?_

"Then maybe you can explain the unidentified creature that has shown up twice whenever you were in the Eva," Gendo responded, showing another picture that was of the Servant Beast of the Djinn, removing Shinji from the Entry Plug.

Shinji frowned and expressed, "I don't know anything about that. I was out cold in the plug you had me put in against my will. Even if I knew something about it, I wouldn't share with you after all that you did… I'd never share with you."

Pema didn't show it, but she was grateful to Shinji for lying about her cursed state. It just made her prouder that he was the one that freed her from the bottle.

"This…creature seems to show up whenever you're in danger and has interfered with NERV-related affairs," Gendo declared. "Whatever you know about this…this thing, you will divulge."

"And I just told you, I know nothing about this creature. However, I can say this about it: It removed me from the Eva, the one place that sickens me just as much as nearly any other place does…and I'm grateful to it."

"And if you were placed in the Eva again, would the same outcome occur?"

Shinji thought about it…and gave a different possibility that could happen.

"Maybe," he started, "or maybe it would just rip the Eva to pieces after it was done with it to stop it because it seems like a double-edged sword."

"You admire this thing."

"I admire its sense of chivalry. Kinda makes me glad I studied mythology over science. Not that science has been helpful in the past few years."

"The only good it's ever done is developing new medicines," Pema expressed. "You wanna tell him the terms or should I do it?"

"What terms?" Fuyutsuki asked.

"Their terms in exchange for Shinji agreeing to pilot the Eva…willingly," went Misato; she had been informed by the pair themselves. _But if Commander Ikari doesn't agree, then we're short a pilot…because we're short one that is willing to help if we agree to his simple terms._

"NERV does not negotiate," went Gendo in response.

"Oh, really?" Shinji questioned. "Is that your way of saying that you yourself doesn't make agreeable compromises with anyone? Because it sounds like that."

-x-

Ritsuko decided to go to Commander Ikari's office to see what was going on with the Third Child and the girl he lived with, putting up with the unwanted company of the First Child. She suspected that the continued harassment by NERV had pressured the boy into coming back in order to get it to end, but their presence could've been for other reasons.

The door to Gendo's office opened up and out came Shinji and Pema, both looking irritated.

"Well, that didn't go well at all," went Shinji.

"At least we tried," said Pema, holding his right hand as they walked away. "And you proved something wrong about what that man said about you earlier."

"Which was?"

"He said you only existed for the Baron of Darkness. But you proved him wrong by walking away. You're not bound by some form of fate made out by others."

"I have you to thank for that, Pema. Your presence gives me confidence in facing people."

As Ritsuko entered the office, Rei, who should've gone in, as well, instead went after the departing pair. The albino girl had a look of anger that made her face seem twisted from its usual, vacant expression.

-x-

_Two minutes ago_

Shinji gave his terms in exchange for his willingness to get back into the Eva as being very simple. He would pilot the Eva…but under his terms to not be followed by people, to not follow Gendo's orders, and that he and Pema continued to stay at the temple without unwanted supervision (this was since the two were well enough to live in a place by themselves without anyone watching after that). Those were his terms in return for his participation. Even Misato felt that those terms were within acceptance; if it meant having Shinji piloting the Eva of his own, free will, it was a price they could've paid.

Unfortunately, Gendo refused to agree to these terms; he wanted the boy controlled…and the girl kept away from him.

"_That's not going to happen if neither of us want to be separated,"_ said Pema to him in response to what he felt needed to happen.

"_You're a hebephile, and you should be incarcerated,"_ Gendo retorted.

"_She's my best friend,"_ went Shinji, defending her from him, _"and we don't have to put up with this if you can't accept that I don't need you to be involved in my life any further."_

Fuyutsuki sighed at how uncooperative Gendo was being. It really made him want to tell the boy what was really going here.

"_You will pilot the Eva for NERV,"_ Gendo declared towards Shinji, _"or you can be incarcerated with the hebephile."_

Shinji looked at Pema…and then at Misato and Fuyutsuki, sighing at his father's pathetic attempts at trying to get him to submit.

"_That sounds like an interesting deal,"_ he uttered at his father. _"A really interesting deal. Unfortunately, I got a better one for you."_

Misato looked over at Pema, who looked back at her, shrugging her shoulders as she didn't know what Shinji was talking about.

"_How about__…__I give you the finger,"_ Shinji suggested, and raised his right hand up to show his father the vulgar gesture as his sign of disrespect towards his authority, _"and Pema and I walk out of here and we all pretend this conversation never took place?"_

Cough. Pema covered her mouth; she didn't expect Shinji to do this at all…and she was trying to suppress a giggle.

"_I don't have time to waste on your petulant foolishness, boy,"_ Gendo stated to Shinji.

"_And you can't scare me with your idle threats, old man,"_ Shinji fought back. _"There's no point in trying to seek a beneficial compromise with this agency as long as you're the one in charge of it and it's on your terms. You nearly had me killed over something you could've had someone else do, and willingly, too. You sent one of your suits to follow us and then try to kill Pema in front of me, thinking that you could break me. Heh. You don't want a pilot for the Eva. All you want is another lackey to jump whenever you call. You tell someone to jump, you don't even wanna know how high, so long as they jump. We're done here."_

Shinji turned and walked away, and Pema followed him.

-x-

"I take it that we won't be seeing either of them for a while?" Ritsuko asked after being informed what had happened in the office.

"In all honesty, the terms did feel acceptable," Misato, who had told her what had happened, expressed. "We could've agreed to them."

"NERV doesn't negotiate," Gendo reiterated; he was unwilling to submit to Shinji. "He will pilot the Eva, even if it means being forced to."

"Ikari," went Fuyutsuki, "your son spoke an undeniable truth when you look at it from a different perspective. You don't want him as a pilot, just as another lackey to jump for you whenever you call. He won't let you order him around."

"Is something wrong, Ritsuko?" Misato asked the faux-blond, who looked around the office.

"Didn't Rei come in the office behind me?" She asked her.

"I didn't see her come in with you," Fuyutsuki stated.

"Where could she have… Oh, dear. She must've went after the two."

-x-

Pema stopped walking after she and Shinji walked out of the base, turned around and saw Rei Ayanami coming at them.

"Pema, what's…" Shinji was about to ask, but was cut off when the albino girl came between the pair…and began assaulting Pema. "Aah! Hey!"

Rei grabbed Pema's neck and tackled her to the ground.

Pema, because Rei hadn't placed Shinji in danger, didn't turn into the demon, but wasn't about to go easy on the girl just because she had recovered from grievous injuries a while back. She kicked the girl up off of her and quickly got back up.

"Ayanami, what's the meaning of this?!" Shinji demanded, about to approach Pema out of concern for her, but Rei got back up and attacked Pema again. "Ayanami, stop!"

Rei slammed Pema backwards against the door with enough force to actually shatter the glass that showered upon them as they fell onto the floor in front of people. She continued to grab at the older girl's neck, wanting to choke the life out of her.

"Gah! Gaaurgh! What is your…problem?!" Pema demanded, grabbing at her arms to free herself from her grip.

Rei didn't answer her.

Shinji came by and grabbed Rei, pulling her off…and throwing her aside.

People showed up and a demand for what had occurred was asked.

"We did nothing to provoke her," Pema stated, holding her neck. "We were leaving when she attacked me from behind."

"She just came at Pema and started trying to choke her," Shinji backed her up, as he had seen what had transpired between them.

He then looked up and noticed that a camera was on the ceiling.

"Do those cameras work, or are they just for show?" He questioned.

-x-

There was no denying what the footage showed on the screens. It clearly showed an unprovoked assault on Pema by Rei Ayanami. And the albino refused to explain why she attacked the older girl.

"…I've never seen Rei actually do something like this before," Ritsuko expressed, watching as Pema defended herself against the albino.

Misato, watching as Shinji came up from behind and pulled Rei off and threw her aside, responded, "What, that she intentionally attacked Pema, whom I'm starting to think may be the only person in the world that actually cares about Shinji? Or that she could actually do something like this without any sort of provocation?"

"Both, really. Plus, the fact that she targeted the older girl, like out of spite or jealousy."

"Something tells me that Rei's in the same boat as Commander Ikari is in Shinji's eyes."

"Which is?"

"Both of them aren't going to be well-liked by him any time in the future."

-x-

"…I can't believe she would go and assault you like that, Pema," said Shinji as the pair sat down on the floor of the temple. "This was worse than when you stopped her from trying to slap me."

"I know. I didn't even do anything to her. You didn't even do anything to her." Pema responded, holding a small ball for Otomo to catch. "You think it may have something to do with my keeping her from slapping you?"

"Because I spoke my mind and you defended me? If so, she's one to hold a grudge over a recent matter and try to result to violence because she doesn't like what we believed."

As she threw the ball for Otomo, Pema sighed and held her neck.

"Something wasn't right about Ms. Ayanami back there," she expressed.

"She's crazy."

"Maybe damaged is the actual problem with her."

"Damaged?"

"Damaged, broken…even twisted. There was just something about her that…wasn't right. Call it an odd feeling, but I think there's something off with her that I never get from other people. With other people, such as you or Ms. Katsuragi, there's no feeling of unusual unease most of the time, but with her, there is unusual unease, like there's something missing from her…or she has something in her that shouldn't be there. I don't know."

As Otomo returned with the ball, Shinji reached near the base of the fireplace and picked up a small log of artificial firewood to place onto the fireplace.

"Should we be concerned about her like any other people associated with NERV?" He asked her.

"I think if we see her again, we should keep our distance," she answered him. "But if she tries what she did to me again…I probably won't hold back."

Shinji took hold of her left hand.

"Then we'll have to be careful around anyone NERV-affiliated…because I can't bear to lose you. Not to NERV, not that man, not anyone." He told her.

-x-

"…So, the temple had a fixer-upper look inside?" Fuyutsuki asked Misato, wanting basic information on Shinji and Pema's current dwelling.

"It completely looks like you could call it a home," Misato told him. "Or as close to a home when you look at these two from a different perspective. They live in a wooden structure and use limited technology. I think they're the only people I've seen around here that use a fireplace and candles as their luxury. But it's really the only place they really seem to belong around. It's primitive…and welcoming."

That's when Fuyutsuki decided that he would pay the pair a visit.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Misato asked him; with her repeated visits and the harassment by Section Two and the kidnapping and putting Shinji in the Eva against his will, she felt that any more visits from NERV will just pressure the two. "Commander Ikari won't stop bothering them until his son gets back into the Eva, and Shinji won't get back into it willingly unless it's on his terms."

"Whoever said anything about me going over there to talk about the Eva?" Fuyutsuki questioned. "I'd rather talk about the boy and his friend."

The Sub-Commander then walked off the bridge of Central Dogma, leaving Misato and Ritsuko wondering why he of all the NERV personnel would want to talk to the boy about trivial things.

"Anything with Rei yet?" Misato asked Ritsuko.

"She refuses to speak about why she attacked the other girl," the faux-blond explained. "She'll probably talk if Commander Ikari questions her, but it's anyone's guess why she chose to do so."

"An Eva pilot that recovers from major injuries, one pilot that doesn't want to pilot at all, and one that's still in Germany…and an older girl that lives with the boy in a temple they might as well call home."

"It'd be simpler to transfer the Second Child and Unit-02 here, but Commander Ikari is obsessed with getting his son to pilot, even if it's against his will. It's crazy."

"It's a nightmare."

-x-

With time to waste and time to catch up on after what happened earlier in the day, Shinji was finishing the drawing of Pema holding Otomo in her lap.

"It's kinda weird," she told her master.

"How is it weird?" He asked her, wanting to know as he sketched her head and neck.

"Being drawn on paper, sitting around after a bad afternoon."

"It's not that weird, Pema. I mean, yes, it is weird in a way…but it's also kinda comforting. You're a comforting person to be around. Not just that, you've kept me safe from danger when I find myself in it. If I could, I'd give you a medal for heroism."

As he sketched her eyes, the girl responded, "You're my hero, too, Shinji. You gave me hope when I felt I had none."

"Likewise with you in my life."

-x-

The temple looked rather re-purposed as a home, something which made it stand out beyond the fact that it had to be the only temple in Tokyo-3's mountainous terrain to Kozo Fuyutsuki. Another interesting feature was that the temple looked like its supports and foundation were reinforced.

_It seems like anyone without a major need for technology would want to live here,_ the elder thought, as he stood in front of the place.

He then walked up the small number of steps and stood at the door. Slowly, he raised his left arm up and knocked three times, hoping to get the attention of the temple's residents.

"Arrf!" He heard a small barking and then the sounds of scratching on the other side of the door.

"Who is it?" The voice of Pema uttered.

"Kozo Fuyutsuki, here to speak with Shinji Ikari," he responded.

The door opened up and revealed Pema, who looked cautious.

"State your reasons, please," she told him, opening the door wider so that the elder had a look at Shinji, who was holding a sketchpad.

"I can tell you everything your father has done," he explained, "and is trying to do…and why he's so obsessed with wanting you to pilot the Eva."

Shinji turned away, inhaled and placed the pad down.

"Is this another trick?" He asked him. "Just another attempt to make me do as he says without any say that I may have?"

"No," Fuyutsuki swore. "This is of my choice. Your father has no clue that I would even divulge long-kept secrets to you…if you want to know the truth, that is."

To be continued…

A/N: Well, things seemed to have gone up a notch. Don't you think?


	16. Heartache

Creation began on 05-10-16

Creation ended on 07-09-16

Neon Genesis Evangelion

I Dream of Evangelion: Heartache

It was a sleepless night for Shinji after the elder left the temple. His entire world view on the concept of life and death had become warped after hearing what he heard from the guy that worked for his father. And the worst thing about everything was that those that knew of this so-called truth…kept it hidden from those that had a right to know until it was either necessary for them to know…or just past the point of no return. The only consolation to knowing what he knew now…was that Pema had been in the dark about it, as well.

"_You mean, his mother has been inside that mockery of the Baron of Darkness for years…and has, more or less, been playing dead ever since?" _Pema had asked Fuyutsuki; she hadn't masked her disgust or anything about the revelation. _"What kind of… Who willingly does something like this?"_

_Who, indeed? _Shinji wondered, laying in his blankets, looking up at the ceiling of the temple. _And the worst part is that he knew…and still tried to get me to pilot that thing again!_

Across from him, Pema, who hadn't gone to sleep, either, watched over him with sympathetic eyes. She suspected that he was going to have a hard time trying to get over this cold revelation that his parents weren't as good as he had wished they had been. If she could, she would've granted that wish.

"Shinji?" She spoke to him.

"Yes?"

"Are you okay?" She asked him, but soon regretted that question. _Of course he's not okay. What was I thinking, asking him that?_

Shinji turned to face her and responded, "No, Pema. I'm far from it. What we found out tonight… That hurts, and knowing that it's not a bunch of lies… That hurts even more. How do you get past something like this? How do you get over it?"

Pema didn't have an answer for him. She wasn't sure how anyone in his position could get over what they had discovered. They weren't in the same boat, anymore, as she had initially believed them to be; the boats they were in, however, were still similar, but one of the only similarities between them was that they were both disgraced by their fathers that failed them. She was unsure if she could ever have an answer for him.

"You really didn't know, did you, Pema?" She heard him say to her. "You didn't know that she was in there the whole time."

"No, Shinji," she answered him. "I never knew. Ever since I met you that day on the beach, my very concern has been your safety and happiness. If I had known about this, I wouldn't have kept it from you for a long time."

He gave a small smile.

"Thank you, Pema."

-x-

"…Commander Ikari was not pleased that you went to see the Third Child and the girl this evening," went Ritsuko to Fuyutsuki as he returned to the Geo-Front.

"Right now, I honestly don't care what pleases or displeases him," Fuyutsuki responded to her, sitting down in an office chair. "All we've done ever since he left the day after the Third Angel arrived was harass him, violate his civil rights, and whatever time he makes for this girl that lives with him at the temple that serves as their residence."

"Still, Commander Ikari will want to know whatever happened while you were there."

"Not that it's going to matter what he thinks, but I told Shinji what he needed to know. Whether or not he chooses to keep away is up to him and the girl."

-x-

All she did was blink when he fell asleep beside her, and she was transported to the cemetery Shinji had described as a forest of sand and small, black pillars. She was standing in front of a particular tombstone with a name that was associated to her master.

"_Yui Ikari, born 1977, died 2004"_ was written on the grave that was now understood as being nothing but a false form of evidence that the woman had been returned to the Earth.

Pema's face, despite her kindness and sympathy towards Shinji, was contorted with hatred towards his mother for her deception towards him…and her involvement in the manipulative actions used by both his parents.

"I should be standing in front of the mockery of the Baron of Darkness to be speaking of this," she uttered, each word spoken a tiny piece in the disgust she felt, "but I guess this will do as a substitute. I used to think you were similar to my mother and sisters, being that you were a person that understood a child's desires of personal happiness to be more important than aiding a family's future or the future as a whole. But you take family to its worst levels by trying to exploit your only son. You're not even close to dead, but I have my doubts that you will ever return to life. What kind of mother are you? No, what kind of person are you?! If this was all that you were going to do with your life, then why did you think to have my master if you were going to leave him the way you did all those years ago?! You…and your husband, his poor excuse for a father…are no better than my father had been to my family when he picked me to be wedded. But so long as there is breath in my body, I will protect Shinji from anyone that dares to harm him, even if that means I have to protect him from the likes of you two. And if I ever get the opportunity to do so, I will punch you in the face for your transgressions committed towards Shinji."

She thought of her father, of Shinji's father…even the man that cursed her for refusing to marry his son, and shuddered at memory of being locked in the darkness for thousands of years as she held onto her shoulders in the cold night that slowly began to turn to day. She knew she had to get back to the temple, but wanted to do one more thing, and blinked a can of spray paint in her right hand.

"Since you're not really buried, this shouldn't make any difference," she told herself, and used the can on the tombstone.

-x-

"…You told the Third Child everything?" Gendo demanded out of Fuyutsuki in his office.

"He had a right to know, Ikari," Fuyutsuki defended his actions.

"It's not for him to know anything."

"I don't agree with you. Either way, what's done is done. He knows the truth. You can't change that."

-x-

Shinji awoke to the new day after a bad night of sleep. He saw Pema cleaning the ash off the fireplace and replacing the burnt wood with new wood.

"Good morning, Shinji," she greeted him.

"Good morning, Pema," he responded as he got up.

"Did you sleep well?"

"Not as well as I wish I had."

Taking out one of the matches from a pouch hanging beside the fireplace and lighting it, Pema suggested, "Why don't you go soak in the hot spring and I'll call you when breakfast is ready?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'll do that, Pema. Thanks."

He left out to the back of the temple after grabbing a change of clothes from the compartment where he kept his spare clothes (along with the ones that Pema conjured for him since the ones that were supposed to have been shipped from where he used to live never showed up).

Pema sighed as Otomo rushed over to her legs and started begging for a piece of celery. She bent down and gave the Hokkaido a tiny piece of celery that was digestible.

"Oh, Otomo," she expressed. "What can I do for Shinji? What can I do for him that no one else can?"

Within the shed that covered the hot spring, looking up at the obscured, plastic substitute for glass that gave a near-perfect view of the sky above, Shinji laid back on the smoothed stones behind him as he tried to relax. Two trains of thought ran through his mind that were dominant of his few thoughts at the moment; the first was that he didn't want anything to do with NERV…and the second was that he felt that he and Pema should probably get away from the city and go someplace where there weren't people that could hurt them. He could already name four of them.

"Shinji!" He heard Pema scream his name.

-x-

It looked like a massive piece of jewelry. Blue like sapphire, but looking almost as smooth as pearls were.

"What is that thing?" Shinji questioned, damp from having gotten out of the hot spring to see what Pema had seen.

"My best guess?" Pema went. "Another one of these Angel creatures."

"And it's going to the center of the city."

"Just above the Geo-Front."

The creature was going to attempt to get inside the NERV base, and if it managed to do that, it would cause irreversible discord for everyone everywhere left on the planet by making contact with a large creature that NERV possessed as a lure.

"Shinji," went Pema, turning to look at him, "what do you want me do?"

She was asking him to make a choice regarding the Angel. If he told her to send it away, it would likely return at a later time. But if he asked her to consume the Angel for the Servant Beast of the Djinn, she would have the power of three Angels under her, but that would only happen if he was placed in danger, something she didn't want to risk.

Shinji thought about it hard. He really hated his father, started to have heavy doubts about his mother, but even if they wanted to exploit him for selfish reasons (and it didn't matter if others could view said reasons as either selfish or selfless), Shinji didn't want others to suffer because of what people like his parents had done to condemn them to this fate. Even if he didn't give the people of the world a second thought, there was no need to drag them all down a pit of shame that was best reserved for bad people.

"Can you protect me from danger, even if it's indirectly?" He asked her.

"I can try," she answered, understanding what he meant; if the Angel managed to cause a calamity that placed everyone in jeopardy, this would include her master, whom she had to protect from such a fate, no matter what. "Let's see what happens when you are in indirect harm."

-x-

With no time to get the Third Child, Gendo had no choice but to send Rei out in Unit-01. Her synchronization with the Eva was still sufficient for piloting and the Eva still accepted her.

"Launch Unit-01!" Misato ordered on the bridge.

"Launching," one of the technicians responded.

Within the Eva cages, the purple, horned behemoth was catapulted up to the city.

"Captain!" Makoto Hyuga gasped. "Energy spiking detected within the Angel!"

As the Eva reached the surface, Misato had no time to order the First Child to get out of the way or have the technicians pull the Eva back underground.

The Angel unleashed a beam of energy at the Eva that melted right through a trio of buildings and caused the First Child to scream as she felt like she was being boiled alive.

"Aaaaahh!" Rei screamed, the Eva's AT-Field providing only minimum protection against the energy beam that wouldn't let up.

Before Misato could order the Eva to be pulled back, said behemoth started to glow brightly, despite the flaring, red light that should've obscured everything else it covered in red light. She recognized the strange armor that had covered the Eva's arms, legs and chest from the previous attacks…and suspected that that creature from the times when Shinji was placed in danger had come back.

"Again?!" Ritsuko questioned in disbelief, just as the Eva raised its arms to its center.

"You shall never know the peace of freedom," they all heard the Eva say, which was different from the single word it uttered the first two times.

"Rei," went Misato to the blue-haired girl, "are you piloting the Eva?"

"Negative, Captain Katsuragi," they heard the weakened First Child respond. "Unit-01 is not responding to my control."

The Eva's arms blocked the beam and then it moved forward, towards the Angel.

"There's a massive AT-Field being erected from Unit-01, but it's not coming from the pilot!" Maya Ibuki gasped.

-x-

It was a gamble, but Pema was relieved that it was working for her and Shinji. The fact that this Angel was seen as an indirect threat to her master's life permitted the use of the Servant Beast of the Djinn and the accumulated power of the Third and Fourth Angels, their strength boosting the beast's beyond what it initially possessed. And now the energy beam from this Angel was augmenting the potential energy she was storing for her counterattack.

_He's suffered enough heartache, _she thought, willing the Eva to move forward, one defiant step after another. _A father who is not a father and a mother who is not devoted to her child. There is no place in this world…or any other that should allow for such people to exist. He deserves to smile, to laugh, to embrace the people that truly care for him._

She could now feel the spiritual presence of Yui Ikari (who provided no meaningful assistance to the defiance the beast expressed in controlling the Eva), no doubt questioning her behavior towards this action against the Angel. But just because Pema could feel her presence, that didn't, essentially, mean that she could hear the woman speaking or see her in some ghostly form in order to converse with her. Not that Pema wanted to speak with her, anyway; her concern was protecting Shinji from harm. From any that dared to harm him, even if that meant his mother, as well.

_There are fates far worse than dying. There are consequences far worse than leaving the people that love you alone. Being washed down the river_ _that nobody cares for, forgotten by everyone that knew you. Living in darkness for so long that the light hurts you. Or living forever…with absolutely no reason to want to live._

Now, merely three feet away from the Angel, the possessed Eva opened its mouth…and shot out a blue, snake-like tentacle at the energy beam-firing threat. It pierced right through the powerful AT-Field, and into the crystalline hide of the enemy, causing it to react in pain, but sounding like a chorus of people singing a background song of utter despair.

_I don't want any of these fates for Shinji, _Pema continued to think, feeling the beast begin the process of absorbing this Angel into itself. _I wouldn't wish these fates on anyone, even those that do deserve worse than death…because there will be many of those that deserve death…just as there will be those that deserve life more than anything. The loneliness and rejection…the hatred and self-destruction… An inescapable misery that needs to be escaped before it consumes all._

The Angel could feel its life force fading from its body as darkness surrounded it. Its blue hide becoming gray, the crystal-like texture turning brittle and fragile. The last thing it ever saw before the feeling of eternal slumber took hold of it…was a male member of the Lilin race…wandering in the darkness…alone.

Crash! The Angel fell to the ground…and crumbled to dust, leaving only Unit-01 standing.

"Grr," it growled, content with the results of the battle.

And then, it fell to its palms and knees, the golden armor evaporating from its body, leaving the damages it received moments ago from the Angel, and atop its back, the Servant Beast of the Djinn, which quickly vanished from sight.

-x-

"I don't believe this," Misato expressed, standing in front of the retrieved Unit-01 as it underwent repairs.

"Well, if that strange, golden armor hadn't appeared when that creature showed up, the Eva's core would've been destroyed," went Ritsuko to her as she wrote off some things on her chart board.

"Not the Eva, the creature that took control of the Eva. It was believed that it only showed up because of Shinji being in the Eva, but this time, it had nothing to do with the boy. What if we got it all wrong about the reason it shows up? What if…it just shows up whenever the Eva is involved?"

"Maybe, but use the Eva to attack the Angels?"

As the Eva's damaged armor was being swapped out, Gendo was in another meeting with SEELE regarding the creature that took control of the Eva and did away with the Angel.

"This creature usurped the Eva for the third time and dealt with the Angel, Ikari," SEELE 05 expressed.

"And the Third Child was not present in the Eva," added SEELE 10. "It was believed that it only appeared whenever he was placed in danger. This, however, was not the case."

"You had the First Child in the Eva," said SEELE 01 to him, "and the same result happened."

Gendo had no explanation for the reason the creature appeared and ended the situation as quickly as it began. He couldn't even come up with an elaborate lie. All he could think of what to say at the time, however, was…probably his most embarrassing excuse.

"I do believe, however, the Third Child knows something about the creature," he confessed.

"Your son knows something about this creature?" SEELE 03 questioned. "And this is the first we're hearing of it?"

"He refused to discuss anything that he might've known about it," Gendo explained.

-x-

It was unexpected, but Pema allowed Shinji to examine her hands after she had mentioned an unusual feature that had suddenly manifested on them while the form of the beast shortly after the Fifth Angel was absorbed into it. They weren't completely noticeable, but her palms had a pair of smooth, circular jewels that looked embedded in them.

"Maybe it's a side-effect from absorbing the Angel," he suggested, holding her right hand. "I'm sorry, Pema. I made you deal with the Angel."

"No, it's not your fault, Shinji," she told him, and she knew this to be true. "This…if it's a side-effect of the Angel's absorption…it's from my curse. It always seems to go back to my curse."

The gems seemed to reflect her cursed form's eyes, with the right hand's being black and the left being white. If Shinji had to guess, they were some sort of organic diamond, but he had never seen a black version of a diamond before.

"They're like tiny pearls," Shinji expressed.

"Yeah," she agreed with him, having seen some pearls before and her bottle had pearls on it. "Yeah, they kinda do."

She looked at Shinji, who seemed relieved that she had simply come back to him at the temple. In her honesty, she was glad she came back to him at the temple, as well.

"So now, we know that even indirect danger is putting you in danger," she told him.

"And you saved many people today," he responded…and then just hugged her. "You saved a lot of people today."

"Arf!" Otomo barked, running over to Pema and begging on her left leg.

"Yeah," she agreed with him. "Yeah, I did."

-x-

"…It doesn't even matter what happens to me now," said Fuyutsuki to Gendo after the latter's meeting with SEELE. "Whether Shinji continues to persist or not is entirely up to him. Whether he decides to pilot the Eva or not is entirely up to him."

But Gendo didn't agree with him.

"The Committee has decided to postpone dealing with you until further notice, Fuyutsuki," he told his former teacher. "They're interested in speaking with the Third Child as soon as possible."

"And how do you plan on convincing him to speak with them? Oh, wait, you don't plan on asking him to divulge anything he may know absolutely nothing about. You just plan to force him."

Gendo didn't deny this. Even after being instructed by SEELE to have the Second Child and Unit-02 transferred to Tokyo-3, he still insisted on his son being dragged into the situation involving the Angels. There was no swaying him to forget about the Third Child, no matter how many times he refused to change his mind.

-x-

Shinji awoke in the middle of the night…and noticed that Pema wasn't beside him on their futons. He didn't like this and rose up.

"Pema?" He called out to her in the dimly-lit temple. "Pema?"

"Over here, Shinji," he heard her voice, and saw her sitting on the other side of the fireplace, her left hand being gripped softly by her right hand.

"You had me worried that you were gone," he told her as he came over to sit beside her. "Are you alight, Pema?"

"I'm fine, Shinji," she answered him, showing him her palms, showing that the two gems that were initially there after the absorbing of the Fifth Angel were gone. "Thank you for your concern."

He held them firmly in his and looked up at her.

As the fire died out, casting the whole temple in darkness, the two simply held onto one another. The sky outside had shifted from dark to a grayish-white, casting some of the interior with natural lighting.

"Let's go outside," Shinji suggested to Pema.

"Yeah," she agreed with him, and stood up.

It wasn't all that cold, and the grass wasn't all that damp, so Shinji and Pema stayed in their pajamas (blue sweatpants a green, over-sized shirt for Shinji and a pale shirt and shorts combo for Pema) as they walked around the greenery around the temple on the mountain.

"It feels so quiet out here," Pema said to Shinji, leaning against a tree as they stopped walking.

"Most of the city must be asleep for it to be this quiet," Shinji suspected, holding a sleeping Otomo in his arms. "It's strange, though. Before I met you, I never knew any place to be quiet in the morning. It was always… I don't think I ever knew a quiet morning."

"There are quiet places in the world, Shinji…if you know where to look for them."

As they resumed walking around the greenery, Otomo woke up and jumped out of Shinji's arms and ran around their legs.

"Shinji, about the other day," Pema decided to ask her master about what she was trying to put behind them because she didn't want to upset him. "Are you going to be okay?"

He looked at her, leaned against a tree and then sat down against it, looking up at her.

"I'm not… I'm not entirely over it, Pema." He explained to her his feelings about the revelation of his parents' deception and attempts to exploit him. "But I hope to get over it, eventually."

"Is there anything I can do for you?"

_What could she possibly do for me that she hasn't done for me already?_ He thought, smiling at her as he got back up. _Just having her with me helps me._

And then, either because he felt the need to assure her that he would overcome the despair he felt…or because she held her arms out in front of him…he hugged her.

"Just having you with me helps me, Pema," he told her, and soon enough, the morning air wasn't as cold, anymore…and the land around was completely silent.

To be continued…

A/N: What do you think is going to happen next now that Shinji knows the truth?


	17. Relentless

Creation began on 07-09-16

Creation ended on 07-24-16

Neon Genesis Evangelion

I Dream of Evangelion: Relentless

The morning was so cloudy, it may as well as have been foggy all over the country. But Shinji and Pema stayed close to the temple in case they needed to get back and dress up for the day. The small wilderness in between Tokyo-3 and the neighboring towns gave a subtle impression that it was not a part of the locale due to the mist generated from the cold air. It also gave a sense of eeriness that was welcoming, as well.

"Arf! Arf!" Otomo barked as she ran around some of the trees.

"I've never enjoyed the morning like this, Pema," Shinji told the girl. "You were right. They're better when you have someone to share them with."

Pema ran over to him and held his left hand as she led him deeper into the woods.

"_Where did we go? What did we do? I think we made something… Entirely new…" _she thought, unaware that Shinji was thinking the exact same thing as she.

"_And it wasn't quite me… And it wasn't quite you…" _Shinji thought, finding a nice patch of grass to sit on with Pema. _"I think it was someone... Entirely new…"_

Pema joined him on the grassy patch, and looked up at the misty branches.

"Oh…um... Well, I just can't stop thinking…" He spoke up, sounding nervous about something.

"So…um… Did you say I was different?" She asked him, having felt he had said it once before.

"And you hadn't before?"

"Of course not. When would I have ever?"

"I'm so sorry." He apologized to her.

"No, no, don't be." She assured him.

"And now, you're here forever!" He referred to her being in a place that was thousands of years ahead of the time she was familiar with.

"What about you?" She asked him.

"What about me?" He responded.

"Well, you're here, too. We're here together." She reminded him, as they were both away from the people that either mattered or should have mattered to them, and they (and Otomo) were pretty much all they had.

Pema then got up off the patch and pulled him up with her.

"Hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm," she hummed, turning away from him for a moment and then turning back to face him…with a smile, offering her right hand to him.

"Hmmm-hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm... Hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm… Hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm…" Shinji imitated her humming, and she led him further in the humming; he hadn't done it before…but found it to be quite soothing.

Pema then brought up his right hand to her left shoulder…and Shinji just…set his left hand under her right shoulder. She smiled at him as she held him by his sides…and he smiled back.

"Arf! Arf!" Otomo barked as she ran around the two.

"Hmm-hmm-hmm-hmmm-hmmmm…" They continued to hum as they slowly danced in between the trees. "Hmm-hmm-hmm… Hmm-hmm-hmm…"

_I've never felt this way towards anyone before in my past,_ thought Pema, enjoying this moment with Shinji as they moved between the trees. _My father tried to marry me off to someone I didn't love, let alone like. But__…__but I like Shinji. Could__…__could he be the one for me?_

-x-

"Good news," went Ritsuko to Misato in Central Dogma as she sat down in a chair. "The Second Child and Unit-02 will be here the day after tomorrow."

"Great," Misato responded, although unenthusiastic about it.

"You seem unimpressed."

"Even if we have them here, Commander Ikari is still going to want his son around, regardless of his decision to keep away."

"Maybe, but it's not like we can convince him to change his mind over this. He's never been the understanding type."

"Is he that desperate to do what he did to Shinji that he was willing to have him kidnapped and forced into the Eva like with the Fourth Angel? And then, there's that creature that can take control of the Eva. It's clearly more powerful than even the Angels are so far, but we don't know what it is or what it really wants, if it even has an agenda."

"Only people can have agendas, Misato."

"Then, what are the Angels that want to destroy us?"

"Nature's abominations with complexities that feel an unnatural attraction towards large masses of electromagnetic occurrences."

Misato's expression was deadpanned; she didn't understand what Ritsuko was trying to say about the Angels and their reasons for wanting to get rid of mankind. But the purple-haired woman continued to think about the creature that had defeated three of them, and believed that whatever it was and its own reasons for interfering with NERV's business, it demonstrated a sense of morality, as it just showed up and dealt with the Angels and left the people alone. It was like the creature had no interest in people.

-x-

"Eh-heh-heh!" Shinji chuckled as he collapsed onto his futon's sheets.

Pema walked past him and sat by the fireplace.

Otomo ran over to her food bowl and ate the rest of her breakfast.

"I really had a good morning out there with you, Pema," Shinji told her.

"Me, too," she responded, looking back at him. "It was actually one of the best mornings I've had where I see more grass than sand and dirt."

"It was actually the first morning that I actually took the time to enjoy without thinking about anything that bothered me. No need for concerns."

Pema was about to speak up about how they both benefited from the morning out, but then looked towards the windows and frowned at the unpleasant feeling she got.

Shinji looked over at the windows by the doors and then back at Pema.

"Pema?" He questioned, concerned. "What is it?"

"Grr!" Otomo growled after finishing her meal.

"Harassment," Pema responded to Shinji, getting back up and approaching the window near where they cooked. "Intolerable harassment."

She opened the window and Shinji saw (once he got up and close enough to see for himself), to his disgust, several men in black suits like the ones from before.

"You're right, this is intolerable harassment, Pema," he agreed with her.

-x-

Gendo was out of line in the eyes of Fuyutsuki, but there was little he could do about it. The Sub-Commander was informed that he had sent a group of Section 2 agents to bring the Third Child to NERV HQ. All he could do was hope that Shinji could get away if he wanted nothing to do with them.

_Ikari, this is madness,_ he thought, feeling that this was going to border on much more than just harassment and pressuring the Third Child into piloting the Eva against his will and without acceptable terms that Gendo was willing to accept.

-x-

Even though they closed the windows and locked the doors, the suits still got in. They ran into the shed that housed the hot spring and barricaded the door (well, Pema did when she blinked three different locks).

"This is a nightmare," Shinji expressed, holding his backpack with her bottle. "He still doesn't know when to give up."

Bash! The men outside started to ram the door to the shed, and Pema, despite the uselessness of the attempt, tried to hold the door close with her body.

"Shinji, what are we going to do?" She asked him.

"I don't know, I don't know, I don't know," he said and repeated.

"Actually, Shinji, you do know what to do," she reminded him subtly of her curse. "I did it before…and I can do it again."

But Shinji didn't know what she was talking about; he didn't know that she had turned into the beast and harmed several of these suits once before while he was asleep. He just assumed she was referring to the times he was placed in danger by the Angels. But it was enough for him to understand what she was talking about.

"If I can't see anything," he uttered to her, "it'll be only their word that they saw something that was impossible to comprehend…and I'll back you up if they try to accuse you."

She nodded in acceptance as the door began to lose its durability.

"On three," he told her, getting ready to jump into the spring. "One."

Bash!

"Two."

Bash!

"Three!"

BASH! The door broke open, Shinji fell into the spring…and in place of Pema was the Servant Beast of the Djinn, towering over seven of the suits.

"Grr!" She growled at them, her claws sporting the two gems from the aftermath of the Fifth Angel.

Under the water, Shinji, trying his best to stay under, heard muffled sounds that had to be the suits at the mercy of Pema's curse that became his protection from them. They had placed him in danger, and Pema had become his protector, his guardian from them and his father.

"Mmmm!" He could only hear sounds that felt like someone was trying to scream, but their mouth was covered up by something. "Mmmm!"

There was a crash and a sound like a gunshot, but Shinji just curled up in a fetal position as he held his backpack, trying his hardest to hold his breath for a few more moments.

Out of the spring, Pema's monstrous form, unhindered by the gunshot wound to her forehead, grabbed the shooter suit by his head and threw him outside the shed before tail-whipping three other suits against the walls.

"What is this thing?!" One man questioned, trying to reach for his gun, but was immediately grabbed by her and roared at before being tossed out of the shed. "Aaahh!"

Pema's left arm shot out an energy whip, courtesy of the Fourth Angel's power, and flung it at the other fallen suits, flinging them out of the shed before stepping out herself. She counted thirteen suits, either battered or about to take out their guns. Erecting the AT-Field of the Third Angel, she blocked their bullets and pushed them to the ground between the shed and the temple.

"This is sacred territory," she growled, her voice sounding so menacing and demonic that they couldn't tell that she was a girl. "Leave and never return…or I shall rip your souls apart."

"Aaaaurgh!" Some of them gasped.

"Let's get the Hell out of here!" One of them screamed, running away.

"Arf! Arf!" Otomo barked, wanting them to leave their home. "Arf!"

The suits left, running through the trees to get to their cars and drive away.

When they were gone, Pema had returned to her true self and picked up Otomo.

"Good girl," she praised her, and then blinked, undoing the damages caused to the temple and shed.

She returned to Shinji and saw him climbing out of the spring, catching his breath.

"Are you alright, Pema?" He asked her.

"I'm fine, Shinji," she assured him. "Are you okay?"

"I think we need another day at the beach."

-x-

"…They're all saying the same thing," Ritsuko informed Gendo and Fuyutsuki in the former's office. "They chased the Third Child and the girl into a shed with a hot spring, but when they got inside, the boy was already in the spring, there was no sign of the girl, and the creature that appeared during the Angel attacks was there and attacked them."

"And they were unable to get him?" Fuyutsuki asked her.

"Every attempt was prevented by the creature, and it threatened to kill them if they ever tried to return to the temple. Something about it being protected."

"Could the creature have been affiliated with the Third Child?" Gendo suggested.

"If there is such a thing, only the boy would know. Or even the girl."

"Are the agents willing to go back to investigate?" Fuyutsuki asked.

"No," she revealed; the agents were too terrified of the creature to want to go back, even to try and get a picture of the Third Child. "They're more afraid of the possibility that it is still there than they are of the Angels."

-x-

They might as well have called it their secret beach. There wasn't a single soul in sight. It was calming, quiet, and a great way to quell the feelings of discord in their minds and hearts. And Shinji, despite his insistence that he couldn't swim and hadn't done so in many years, was relaxing in the water with the aid of an inflatable tube and water rings.

"How's the water, Shinji?" Pema asked him, two feet away from him in another inflatable tube and water wings.

"It's fine, Pema. Thank you."

"Arf! Arf!" Otomo barked as she swam around them, wearing a life jacket with a volleyball tied to it.

-x-

As scheduled, Evangelion Unit-02 had arrived in Tokyo-3 along with the Second Child.

"Hey, Misato," greeted a young redhead of thirteen years. "It's been a while."

"Yeah, it has been a while, Asuka," Misato responded in greeting the girl outside the NERV base. "You've grown since the last time I saw you."

"It's more than that. My figure's filled out, too."

"But did you really have to be escorted here by him?" Misato asked, pointing to a man of thirty years with an unshaven face and ponytail.

"Hello to you, too, Katsuragi," he greeted with a wink and a smile.

"Ugh," Misato groaned, and then led them into the base.

"So…I heard that there was a Third Child, but he kept turning the opportunity to pilot the Eva down?" Asuka questioned as they got in an elevator.

"It wasn't exactly like that, Asuka. He piloted only once…but wanted nothing to do with his father, afterward…and left with a friend that came with him. They've been living in an abandoned temple in the mountains…whenever Commander Ikari's not sending anyone up there to bother them."

"You mean to say that the commander here has a son that he wants to pilot the Eva…only the son wants nothing to do with him, even when all of mankind's future is at stake from the Angels? Who does this boy think he is to refuse?" Asuka questioned.

"One that lives with an older girl that had to leave her family because her own father tried to marry her off to someone she didn't want to marry some time ago. She met Shinji on a beach and they've been together ever since."

"He lives in an abandoned shack with an older girl? You think this older girl's one of those girls that grew up on the streets?"

"She was offended when I thought that. She doesn't seem like she spent most of her life on the streets, Asuka. She's not even Japanese, not with her looks. She's…just some lady that's supportive of Shinji's decisions and wants to see him kept safe from harm."

"And is his safety really worth the fate of mankind?"

"Honestly, if it's not this girl that he lives with that Commander Ikari sees as a threat, it's this strange creature that showed up and used the Eva to deal with the Angels."

"You mean, a strange, cat-like serpent with broken shackles on its arms?" The unshaven man asked.

"Surely, you got the footage we sent."

"The footage was one thing…but we actually saw it yesterday when we faced an Angel at sea."

"What?!"

"An Angel attacked the Naval fleet unexpectedly, so Unit-02 was sortied against it. Unfortunately, we didn't have an external power supply and Unit-02 ran out of power in its internal battery. Asuka nearly became fish food were it not for the creature that just appeared out of nowhere. It showed up and then… It did something with Unit-02 that…"

"It possessed the Eva, made gold armor appear on it…and consumed the Angel?" Misato asked him.

"That's exactly what it did," went Asuka, angry about that incident. "How can some unidentifiable creature just…take control of the Eva and make it do what simply isn't possible?"

"If what you say is true, then this would make it the fourth time it's shown up whenever an Angel was involved. I'm starting to suspect that are too many coincidences involving this creature ever since it appeared when the Third Angel attacked."

"How many coincidences are you talking about?" The unshaven man asked her.

-x-

The rain didn't let up, so Shinji and Pema took shelter in a cave they found. It was supposed to be their last day on the beach of this unknown island relaxing, but the unexpected weather change spoiled things. The rain…and the fact that Pema felt the presence of another Angel that could've brought danger to Shinji had it been left alone.

She had revealed to Shinji everything that had happened when she blinked herself to where the Angel was and drew a picture in the sand of what the Angel looked like. While her true form wasn't changed like the last time with the Angel that looked like a piece of jewelry, she had larger versions of the gems that appeared on her palms; to Shinji, they had to be about the size of "D" batteries.

But they were getting smaller. The increase in their size was likely due to the latest Angel her demonic self had absorbed and assimilated to increase its own power. Basically, the more Angels Pema consumed, the larger the gems on her hands became until they disappeared.

_If there were other places around the world that had Evas and people to pilot them, why would that jerk persist in trying to make me pilot?_ Shinji wondered as he sat in the far back of the cave with Pema and Otomo, warming up in front of a small fire. _I'm never getting back into the Eva again. I can't. I won't do it._

Pema, looking down at her hands, at the gems embedded in her palms, reduced to the size of small pebbles now, thought back to her time possessing the red behemoth that was about to be dropped into the ocean by the Angel that could've brought harm to Shinji. It was her first time possessing a different Eva that was modeled after a different baron she grew up knowing about. As much she hated the Baron of Darkness, her second most hated baron was the Baron of Blood, which the red Eva was clearly modeled after.

Flash! Her demonic form appeared atop the head of the immobile Eva on the giant boat.

_It had four eyes, _she thought, staring intently at the small, flickering flames.

Flash! She took control of the Eva and made it stand up as the golden armor that had appeared on Unit-01 appeared on it.

_That had to be the only other Angel that had anything to do with water._

Flash! With the Eva under her control, she waited for the Angel to swim closer towards the ship…where she would devour it and add its power to the collective.

_Now, I have the power of four Angels in my possession. The Servant Beast of the Djinn is stronger than they were individually._

Flash! With nothing left of the Angel, the demon released the Eva from its hold and jumped into the water, using its newly-acquired power of adept swimming to work, fleeing the scene.

"Pema?" She heard Shinji call out to her.

"Yes, Shinji?" She responded.

"Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'll be alright, Shinji."

"Arf!" Otomo barked at her, and was then picked up and placed on her owner's lap.

Shinji laid down and looked outside the cave, at the grayish clouds that showered rain onto the world below them.

"What is it like?" He uttered to her. "What is it like when you absorb the Angels? What do you experience each time?"

She laid down beside him and answered, "Each time is different from the previous one. The first time…there was nothing but my concern for you, so I felt nothing from the absorption. The second time, though… That felt a bit unsettling because you were placed in danger by someone that should've put your well-being first, but didn't even think of you. The third time… I felt the fulfillment of keeping you safe from the danger that Angel could've brought. And the fourth time… It just felt depressing. It was depressing because we were having a relaxing time and the Angel was felt by me."

"We're still here, Pema. You here with me is still relaxing. Your presence is comforting."

"Shinji, I… Is it alright with you…if I put my hand on your shoulder?"

Shinji turned his head to face her, seeing her expression was rather hopeful in a way.

"Sure, Pema."

She raised her left hand up and then placed it upon his left shoulder.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

To be continued…

A/N: What happens next is up to the fate of my imagination!


End file.
